Closer than Far
by TMJones
Summary: AU. It's senior year. Roxas is absorbed in schoolwork; some call him the school genius. So how is it that Axel, whose only dream is to keep playing his music after high school, ended up with a huge crush on such a nerd? Akuroku, SoKai, others
1. Roxas

A/N: So, I didn't mean to actually start writing an AkuRoku fic. Or a multi-chapter fic about relationship stuff. Or a full-out Kingdom Hearts fic. But here I am, doing all that and then some.

So enjoy. I don't know what it's going to be just yet, but…we'll see.

Chapter one: Roxas

* * *

"Do you really need all that for the first day of school?"

"So I don't have to carry it later," Roxas replied, slamming his bedroom door shut behind him. "We're getting lockers today, right?"

His fraternal twin Sora just gave him a weird look. All he was holding was a binder and some money for lunch.

"Yeah, but you don't even know what your classes are going to be like," Sora said.

Roxas slung his heavy backpack over his shoulder, and headed down the stairs.

"You always need paper and some notebooks."

"Nerd."

"Slacker."

"We're leaving, Mom!" Roxas called back through the house, "Bye!"

"Have a good day at school!" their Mom called back from general direction of the bathroom, where she was probably getting ready for work.

"I'm working late, and so is your father!"

"Right!" Sora said. Then, he turned to Roxas. "You have the key, right?"

Roxas had already pulled it out of his pocket and was dangling it at their eye level.

"Of course. Because if I didn't have it, that would mean _you'd _have to have it. Which means that you would lose it and we would be sitting on the front porch until Dad got home."

"Hey!," Sora said, shoving the door open, "I don't _always_ lose it—"

"See you this evening!" Roxas called back into the house. He barely heard their mother's reply before Sora slammed the front door shut. Roxas shoved the key into the lock and turned without thinking; they'd perfected this routine somewhere around the same age they had started walking to the bus stop alone.

Sora leaped down the last three steps leading to their front door and bounded through the front yard onto the sidewalk, laughing so loudly that Roxas heard the sound echoing off of the other houses in the cul-de-sac they lived in.

"We're SENIORS, Roxas!" he shouted, pumping his fist into the air, "YES!"

"I thought we were seniors when last year ended," Roxas said, walking calmly down the front walkway.

"Well yeah, but now we're _really_ seniors! One more year, and then—_Life_!"

"Because we aren't living now," Roxas said, laughing. His brother had the crazed, excited look in his eyes that was probably going to plague him all day. He wouldn't be able to keep still.

"You know what I mean! Eight more classes, Roxas! Eight more and we're DONE!"

It was times like this that Roxas was both glad and jealous that he didn't have that kind of energy. The running joke between them was that Sora had taken all the get-go that was supposed to be Roxas' and left him with his characteristic reservedness. Roxas would always come back with how that was only because he'd taken half of Sora's brain cells.

They stopped at the corner of their subdivision simultaneously, landing hard on the same foot to make that _snap_ sound—just like they always did ever since they invented the tradition back in fifth grade. It had gotten to the point where they didn't think about it much anymore; they just did it out of second nature.

"They're just classes, you know," Roxas said, "And what if you fail something? Then it won't just be eight anymore."

"Are you saying I'm going to fail a class?"

"I'm just saying you were pretty sure of it last time your math final came around," Roxas pointed out.

"That was algebra! Trig is bound to be different!"

"Oh, it's _different_ all right…"

"That doesn't sound that convincing."

"It's not supposed to," Roxas said, smiling at Sora.

Sora crossed his arms.

"Some motivator you are."

"I'm your twin," Roxas countered, "I don't motivate."

"_Evil _twin," Sora muttered.

Roxas laughed. That could be arguable.

The fresh air of the morning blew down the street, carrying the smell of summer with it. Roxas inhaled deeply; he had to admit he was excited about senior year too, although a little less dramatically. It was only a matter of months, now, before he was walking away from his high school, waving that graduation cap in the air and starting his own life…not that he didn't have his own life now, but it would really, truly, be his to own. Roxas smiled; he definitely was ready…

* * *

"Dude! We're in the same homeroom!" Sora exclaimed, handing his schedule to Roxas.  
"Wow," Roxas said, taking his schedule, "That wasn't predictable (1)."

They heard giggling next to them. Roxas didn't bother looking up; they both knew who it was just from the laugh.

"Hey, Kairi! Was wondering when I'd see you," Sora said, opening his arms. Kairi gave him a one-armed hug.

"Hi," she said, giving him a light peck on the cheek. They'd been dating for about a year, now. A year and two days, exactly; the two had celebrated their one-year anniversary last weekend. Roxas had gotten the honors of picking them up at the beach, once Sora had realized the buses stopped running back into Twilight Town after three. Kairi had made the car ride memorable by forcing Sora to apologize to Roxas for not planning ahead. To Roxas, seeing his brother get chewed out by Kairi had made the trip enjoyable enough.

"I haven't seen you in a while."

Roxas didn't have to look to know who that was, either.

"A whole two days," he said, looking up from his schedule, "You've changed so much."

Namine smiled a small smile.

"It wasn't much of a seeing," she said, "I waved from the front door and you didn't wave back."

"Oh…Sorry about that—" Roxas started.

"It's fine," Namine said, in her usual friendly tone, "I know you're like that anyway."

She shot a quick glance at him through her rectangle glasses. They were light blue. Just like her eyes.

Well—her contacts. Roxas was one of the few people that knew that she was actually an albino. She and her sister were identical twins, but it wasn't obvious to anyone except Sora and him—and Kairi had had to tell Sora, after a while. Roxas had figured it out on his own, and as far as he knew, he was the only one who had; no one ever guessed, just because of how different they were. Kairi was extroverted, with dark hair and tanned skin from all the time she spent outside. Namine didn't talk much to people she didn't know, said strange things to ones she did know that usually involved her drawings, and had a wardrobe completely comprised of white. She hardly wore any other color. Neither of them advertised the fact that they were twins at all.

Now Namine adjusted her glasses, looking down at her light blue shoes. Roxas looked around, avoiding Sora with his eyes. He felt awkward every time he and Kairi started talking, because they inevitably would get absorbed in their own little world. Sora didn't understand it ("We're just talking! Like you and I do!"), but Roxas knew it was different.

Then again, Roxas had never put him in the same position; he'd never dated once in his life. And despite all the jabs he'd gotten for being too involved in his books, the truth of the matter was that he just wasn't interested. At all. People tried again and again to figure out his reasons, but Roxas never game them an answer. He didn't like talking about it all that much; it made him feel lame.

They all said their goodbyes when the bell rang; by this point everyone knew everyone else's schedule, out of the four of them. Once again, Roxas wasn't in any of their classes. Kairi and Sora had some together, but they had planned that out. Namine had some history class with Sora. Roxas had two honors classes and two AP classes. They all thought he was crazy.

He really didn't have anything to say to that, either, considering he didn't think it was _that _heavy of a load...

* * *

The rest of the day didn't have anything different to offer; he knew most of the kids in his classes, because there were only so many honors/AP students in the school, and they had all been taking the same courses for the past three years. He'd been seeing them since middle school, some of them. He'd known Hayner since first grade. Apparently he had a crush on Olette, now. Olette was completely oblivious, Hayner had decided—or rather, hoped. Roxas had a suspicion that she might just be hiding the fact that she knew, but only time could tell. It was amusing to think about, since he was friends with both of them; he got to see things develop from both sides.

After school, he found himself sitting on a bench outside, staring at material he'd been given in his classes during the day. Sora and his friends were playing soccer on the field, running off all their pent-up energy under the afternoon sun. The air was fresh, and nice. Roxas found himself inhaling deeply again, taking in all the smells of grass and trees and flowers, and—

"Hey. Can I move this?"

Roxas looked up. A tall, thin stick of a guy was pointing a long, pale finger at Roxas' Xeroxed handouts strewn next to him. His fingernails were painted black—which happened to be the same color as everything else he was wearing. He stuck out badly in the bright, cheery atmosphere.

"Um—yeah," Roxas said, startled for a moment by the sudden appearance of company. He pulled his worksheets out of the way himself, stacking them together again in his lap. The guy's wild, crimson hair made the oncoming sunset look dull, in comparison.

Some goth kid probably, Roxas thought. He was wearing enough black, anyway, if the black fingernails didn't cue him in. He didn't know why he wanted to sit here; there were plenty of other benches around that he could have had to himself—

"You've got homework already?"

"Yeah," Roxas replied, pulling out the worksheet he had been looking over before, "AP classes start day one."

"I didn't know you were in AP," the guy said, his tone conversational.

Roxas turned to the character next to him again, thrown by the comment. Bright green eyes looked back at him from his own eye level; he was slouching horribly.

"Do I…know you?"

The eyes turned away. He shrugged.

"Well, I mean, we go to the same school, and all…"

Roxas could barely tell what he was saying, he said it so quietly.

"Oh," he said, in a tone just as conversational as the other guy's had been before, "I've…never seen you before. Did we meet somewhere?"

The guy shrugged again. He seemed awkward, suddenly.

"…Oh," he said.

Roxas waited for a better answer, but after a long moment of watching him not meet Roxas' eyes—or even looking in his direction, for that matter—he went back to his worksheet, feeling confused. He spent the next couple minutes racking his memory, thinking of any time he might have said anything to this guy. Nothing came. He would have thought the hair would have made him memorable. If nothing else, he didn't know very many people with little tear tattoos under their eyes…weird...

The guy went away, after a while. Roxas kept staring at his worksheet, replaying the incident over in his mind, trying to figure out who on earth that could have been…

Maybe he'd gotten Roxas confused with someone else…or something…

"Roxas! Come join!"

Seifer was shouting front his spot in front of the goal net.

"Stop being a nerd, I need some help here!"

Roxas looked at his worksheet. He didn't really feel like focusing on it anymore. Was he really focusing on it to begin with…?

He shoved the papers in his backpack and ran over.

"Sure, if you're not on Sora's team!"

"Hey! Some twin you are!"

"What did you expect?" Riku laughed; he was on Seifer's team too, apparently. "Roxas always chooses the team opposite of you."

"It's not fair!"

"Well," Roxas said, acting casual, "Make it fair. Just play harder. Unless you think you don't have a chance against us."

Sora and Tidus exchanged glances. From the goal net, Wakka was rolling his eyes, and sighing.

"_Now_ you've done it," he said.

Roxas laughed, as Sora and Tidus simultaneously took their stances. He always liked playing against Sora rather than with him; things were more interesting that way. Especially when it was so easy to get Sora so worked up about the game. It made for a fun challenge.

And if there was anything Roxas liked, it was a challenge.

"Let's do this."

The soccer game turned out to be fun. Roxas forgot all about the strange encounter he'd had earlier, in the thrill of creaming Sora's team. Tidus kept making excuses because he'd been out of practice for the summer, which Roxas laughed at—until Tidus shut him up by blasting through to their goal. Riku kept slipping into places people weren't expecting him; he kept catching Wakka off-guard. Sora was in the air half the time, kicking the ball above everyone's heads while they weren't noticing. Roxas knew his patterns though, and how to block them. His own plays weren't that fancy—but they were strong and fast, and it was enough to get the ball past Wakka enough times to make a few goals of his own.

After they had successfully sealed the score of the game, they split and headed their separate ways home. Sora had enough pep left in him to be cheery, but Roxas was completely spent; it had been a while since he'd played soccer like that...

They arrived around the same time Mom did. Dad had long since found something to eat and had settled in front of the TV. Mom was trying to pry him away when Sora exploded through the front door, babbling about his first day.

Quietly Roxas locked the front door behind him, pocketed the key, and went upstairs to his room. Mom caught him before he vanished and interrogated him about what _his_ first day had been like. He answered, not really thinking about it. He mentioned homework. Mom and Sora both shook their heads when he mentioned calculus. Sora called him a nerd again. Mom made sure to tell him (again) that she and Dad were proud that he was pushing himself like this.

Finally Roxas went to his room and pulled out his worksheets again. Just the sight of them seemed to bring him right back to where he left off; the image of that kid popped up again in Roxas' mind and he paused in his motions, suddenly feeling awkward.

…should he have said that…?

Was he too blunt? Who _was _he, anyway?

"_Well, I mean, we go to the same school, and all…"_

Roxas found himself pushing his desk chair back and swiveling to his right and reaching for his yearbook, brushing off the dust that had accumulated over an entire summer of sitting forgotten.

He flipped through the pages of faces, skimming for that color—

There. Green eyes and an uncertain smile stared back at Roxas from the middle of the juniors' pictures, generic blue background clashing with horribly red hair.

Axel Hartworth, it read underneath. He was in the same grade as Roxas. He must have gotten the tear tattoos recently; he didn't have them in the photo.

Roxas stared at the picture for a moment, trying to figure out _what_ exactly that conversation had been about…and what kind of name was Axel? It had to be his actual name, it was in the yearbook—they always found your real name...

After a good long moment he snapped the book shut, and shook his head. Maybe he just wasn't that good at introducing himself.

At least Roxas knew his name now…

It didn't help the awkward twinge that kept gnawing at Roxas' stomach, though. He'd have to fix that tomorrow, if he got the chance…

* * *

(1) I don't know if they do this everywhere, but at the high school I'm modeling this fic after (mine), the homerooms were determined by your last name. And because they're twins, the chances that they're going to be in the same homeroom is pretty much 99.9%. ha ha ha, get it?

* * *

A/N: Poor Axel, lol.

And as for Namine being an albino but her identical twin not…blame freaky genetics. I don't know how that would work in real life…but there it is.

I'm going to post this weekly. I have enough chapters written already to get me through March, so I should be able to keep this regularity going.

See you next Wednesday! :D

--Trempush


	2. Namine

A/N: Perspective change, Yaay!

Chapter two: Namine

* * *

"You should have started with 'hi'," Namine said, staring out the cafeteria windows. Clouds were much more interesting than watching Axel get worked up about yesterday afternoon's fiasco. Again. "He's not that observant."

"No kidding," Larxene said. Namine didn't have to look to know that Axel was glaring at her, or something else as easily predictable.

"Think about it!" Larxene continued, defending herself, "There's probably a reason why he's never been on a date before. I mean, seriously. Who at this point hasn't at _least _held hands at a stupid movie with someone?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Axel shot.

"_I_ haven't gone on a date," Namine said calmly.

"See?" Larxene said, "There you go. Would you want to date someone like Namine?"

"Hey! That's not very nice!" Demyx said.

"Don't worry," Namine said, absorbing the texture and brightness the clouds had, "I wouldn't want to date me either. It'd be very boring."

"Wha—?" Demyx protested, but Larxene's cakle drowned him out.

Namine could see the strange stares Larxene was probably getting from other tables in her mind perfectly, clear as day…

Clear as a cloud.

She chewed her vegan lunch slowly, contemplating how she could re-create the texture…

* * *

"Namine."

She looked up. Mr. Marl (or Mr. Marly, as some of his students called him) was analyzing her oil painting—of clouds. No one knew what Mr. Marl's first name was.

"Yes?" she asked, after a moment. Bubblegum pink hair filled half her vision as he leaned over to scrutinize the clouds more carefully.

"These are ugly," he said, his deep voice permeating the room.

"I'm not finished with them—"

"I know what they're going to become if I don't say anything.," he said dryly, "I've only taught you for the past three years."

He stood.

"Make them better."

Blankly, Namine stared at the clouds. He was right; they lacked something….even in their present state.

"I'll bring it home," she said, unfazed by Mr. Marl's harsh critique. It was normal. He nodded his approval.

"By the way," he said, before he wandered off to terrorize the next art student, "I want you to draw ten portraits for your portfolio. Colored pencil. It's the one media you have left to accomplish well enough, and your art school applications are going to be due soon."

She nodded.

"As soon as possible," he added.

She nodded again. Still staring at the cloud.

What did it need…?

* * *

"Another painting?" Kairi asked, when Namine met up with her after classes.

"Yeah," she said, "I have to fix the clouds".

"Can I see?"

Namine lifted the canvas out of her carrier, just enough so that her twin could see the sky painted into the corner.

"Wow…" She said, smiling, "That's a really good sky!"

"They're missing something," Namine said, looking at them again. "Maybe they're not shaded enough…"

"You know," Kairi said, crossing her arms, "have you ever thought that Mr. Marl might be too harsh on you?"

"Maybe it's not the right shade…that works with that blue…" Namine mused aloud, completely oblivious.

Kairi sighed, and led her by the arm down the sidewalk in front of the school. After she finally let the canvas slide back into its holder, she found herself staring at the sky above for most of the walk. They all looked so different…

Which one was the one that had come out of her brush?

* * *

After dinner, when the sky had turned dark, Namine's cellphone started plunking out a warped ringtone on its half-broken speaker. She flipped it open.

"Hi, Demyx."

"Hey! We were wondering if you'd be up for practice—"

"No."

A pause. Namine listened to the scuffle, as the phone got yanked from Demyx's hands. In the lighting of her room, her sky looked even uglier. She held it in her lap, staring at every intricacy the oil had left on the canvas…She didn't know what to put under it…something to fit the ugliness, she thought.

Nothingness, maybe…? Whatever that was—

"Come _on_, Namine!" Larxene was saying, "We're going to play at Jack's Tavern weekend after next! Get your ass over here and mix!"

"We've been practicing for the whole summer," Namine pointed out dully, "It's not that hard to work a synthesizer. Or a mixing board."

"_Yeah_, but—"

"I've got an island to paint. You can play without me."

"What the hell—?"

_snap_ went the phone, as she shut it again. She put it on silent and let it drop next to her, never taking her eyes off the blank canvas underneath sky…

It needed a small, ugly island. To fit the ugly sky. Maybe two wrongs could make a right…

She stood, and carried the canvas out to the garage. All her painting stuff was in there, along with a lot of lamps. Her father eyed the unfinished work as she passed through the kitchen, took a snickerdoodle out of the cookie jar he'd just opened, and kept walking. He didn't say anything; he'd stopped asking a long time ago….

* * *

A long, sandy beach, bright enough to reflect the glittering sun above, stretched out from the bottom of the canvas. It tapered to the left, just like that beach she and Kairi used to play at all the time; the one near their aunt's house.

This one was tropical, though. It had palm trees and fronds, and big, star-shaped fruit that hung from the green leaves at the top. No coconuts, because yellow was brighter. The sea was as blue and clear as Namine could make it. The waves were calm, glinting like the beach in the hot afternoon sun.

She almost felt the warmth on her skin, as she painted; she could smell the air, see the sky stretching out above her, and endless blue. That's how she knew the painting had potential; she felt it welling up inside her, spilling out in front of her.

She noticed after a while that she was making room for someone to stand there, off to the left. She smiled; she knew just the person…

* * *

"Hey, Kairi."

"Mwah?" Kairi asked through a mouthful of toothpaste. Namine came up beside her, taking off her glasses.

"What color was that skort you used to wear all the time at Aunt Yuffie's house?"

"fink," she muffled. Toothpaste dribbled down her chin. "ucph!"

Calmly, Namine took her contacts out and placed them in their holder on the counter, while Kairi finished brushing her teeth.

"Why?" she asked, when she'd washed her mouth out.

"You're on the beach in that painting," she said. Immediately, Kairi's eyes lit up.

"Really? You painted me?"

"You're twelve," she said, nodding. "I remembered the pictures from the trip that year, so I started painting you."

"Awesome!" Kairi said, hopping in excitement, "Can I see?"

"It's in the gara—"

"I won't touch it, I promise!" She exclaimed, running out of the room.

Namine brushed her teeth, thinking about how much more hyper she'd gotten since she and Sora had gotten together. She was always energetic, but she seemed to have found some more energy, hiding somewhere inside.

Namine wondered, as Kairi came back and told her how awesome it was, if the changes between them would only become more, as their lives went on. They weren't going to go to the same college, she was sure; she didn't think it would be hard for them to develop different habits. They were already as different as night and day, but…

They would be different while separated.

It scared her, a little.

* * *

The next day—Tuesday—something interesting happened at school.

"Hey, um…"

Namine looked over at the sound of his voice; she was surprised to hear it this late in the day.

Roxas stood at the end of the lunch table where Namine and Axel sat. He was looking awkwardly at the floor at the moment.

"C—could I…talk to you for a moment?"

Axel stared at him. He didn't know how to react, Namine thought. Especially since he'd had a crush on Roxas since last year. He'd kept it to himself until Larxene pulled it out of him over the summer during one band practice.

"He'd love to," Namine said. Axel's eyes went wide, and he gave Namine his 'what the hell are you doing?' look. She smiled.

"How do you know him, Roxas?" She asked.

Roxas stuck his thumbs in his pockets.

"Um…about that—"

"N—Namine—" Axel tried to say. He was trying to glaze the whole thing over, turning red in the face as he did so—

"I wanted to apologize."

Their whole end of the table went silent. Namine adjusted her glasses; this was an interesting turn of events…

"I, um…I'm sorry I said that…" Roxas said, turning red himself, "But if we talked before, I really don't remember, and I didn't mean to sound like I didn't like you or anything, it's just that I was trying to figure out where I'd met you before, since you were acting like we had and I didn't remember—"

"I—It's fine," Axel said, holding his hands, up, "I've only seen you in the hallways. I just came over to say hi."

There was a long pause, as Roxas just stared at him. Namine made a note to ask Kairi if Sora had anything to do with this…

"O—oh," he said, after a moment. His blush flushed even deeper.

"I'll….um….never mind, then…"

He shuffled off.

After he was out of earshot, Namine started laughing behind her hands. Demyx was doing it too, albeit a little less discretely; he started making a strange squeaking noise, which sent Larxene into laughter, which ended in her watery smoker's cough. Axel let out the breath he'd been holding, and hid his face in his hands.

"_God_ that was embarrassing!"

"More for him than you!" Namine managed between laughs. Axel shook his head.

"Ugh…I'm never talking to him again, that was a _complete_ disaster!"

"But he apologized!" Larxene said, after clearing her throat, "that's a good sign…"

"I thought he was boring like Namine 'cause 'he's never been on a date before'," Axel said, making air quotes at Larxene. She started laughing again.

"She's right though—about Roxas apologizing" Namine said. Demyx had the hiccups now.

"If Roxas apologized to you, then he realized he was a bit harsh. I don't know if Sora had anything to do with that, but even if it did…at least he knows who you are, now."

"It was still embarrassing," Axel mumbled, crossing his arms and leaning back in his plastic chair. He glared off to the side, looking tough with his small black t-shirt and arm tattoos.

Namine didn't say anything. She thought it was amusing, really, that he could get so bent out of shape over one person when he usually gave off the impression that he didn't care about anything. He really was a nice person, despite what he wanted people to think, sometimes.

He'd just been hurt a couple times, that's all.

"h—_eep_!"

Namine looked over at Demyx, as he put a hand over his mouth.

"They're the—_eep_!—squeaky kind!" he said, giving Namine a frightened look.

"You look like you're five when you do that," she said.

"h—_eep!_ Really?"

Slowly, Namine nodded. Demyx was a strange soul. One of those people that never grew up, apparently. Although he could be very grown-up at times, it had to get dragged out of him. Most of the time he was the closest thing this school got to that innocent child persona that most of them had left behind in elementary school.

Larxene sighed.

"I need to smoke."

"Don't look at me," Axel said, still glaring at some unknown point in the corner of the cafeteria, "if I miss any more history, I'm getting detention. Again."

"It's the second day of classes!" Larxene said. "Do they roll over from last year?"

Axel nodded.

"Fine," Larxene sighed, "I don't want to talk to you anyway, you're all moody now."

"I'm not—!"

"Demyx? Got any room for a smoke break?"

Axel sighed angrily, and rolled his eyes again. Namine thought she heard some dark muttering, but she wasn't sure. Meanwhile, Demyx was trying to talk again.

"h—eep! Don't think I can sm—eep!—right now." He rubbed his throat. "Ow…th—ee!—se hurt…"

Namine laughed again, despite herself.

"I'm not going to bother asking you," Larxene said, waving her hand at Namine and getting up. "See you losers later!"

"h—eep!"

* * *

"Hey, Namine?"

Namine looked up at Axel, as they walked through the halls to class.

"Yes?" she asked. She didn't like talking to him while they were standing; he was incredibly tall, and she was very short. It made her neck hurt, if they did this for too long…

"Do you think I should talk to him again?"

"If you want to," she said, shrugging, "after all, you're the one who started it."

"Yeah, but…he didn't even know I existed until I sat down and made an ass out of myself."

"You weren't an ass," she said. "You were just shy, that's all."

"Same difference," he said, "he didn't even know I went to this school."

He sounded miserable.

Namine elbowed him in his skinny, bony side.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Where's your fire?"

Axel looked down at her.

"huh?" he asked blankly.

"You're usually so full of energy," she said, looking up at him. "Ever since you decided to talk to Roxas, you've been all glum and boring. Like Mr. Vexen.

"…ouch." Axel said.

Namine nodded.

"Maybe if you're just yourself, things will work out all right."

"But how can I be myself when I feel like I'm going to throw up every time I see him now?!"

Axel clutched his stomach for effect. His little plain black heart tattoo on his upper arm shifted with the movement.

"How about I draw it for you?"

Again, Axel was caught by surprise.

"Huh?"

"Your fire. I'll draw you some. Maybe then you'll use it again."

His red eyebrows turned downward in a doubtful expression.

"I don't think drawing flames is going to help me, Namine," he said.

"It might," she said. She laughed, liking the idea the more she thought about it.

"I'll do it anyway," she said, "we'll see what you think. I have to do portraits for my portfolio. You'll be the first."

Axel was still doubting this crazy plan.

"…How about I just go throw up?" he said, hand still on his stomach. "And then forget about it?"

"You don't need to lose whatever your body actually keeps in there," she said, eying his thin frame. "Hold it in until I'm done."

"…okay…"

"Go to class," she said, elbowing him again.

"Ow! Fine! I'm going!"

* * *

A/N: So! Care to guess what she painted in the first painting, anyone? It's really hard, believe me (*coughdestinyislandscough*).

Until next Wednesday!

--Trempush


	3. Axel

A/N: And now, Mr. Lovestruck himself! This is the most original story ever, really.

As for the band thing…I kind of imagined these five characters in a band playing these instruments a while ago, just because I was bored while on the bus into work last summer. So now they're here, singing their own stuff instead of lip-synching to Polysics on my ipod. Yay.

Thanks to my reviewers! I didn't do this the first couple chapters, and I should have, but here's everyone's shout-out: Chibi McFu, xHanako, EmoRikuKH, Catwiskers10, Glacer101

You guys are AWESOME!

Chapter three: Axel

* * *

"One, two, three, four—"

The bass hummed, the guitar leaped into its intro chords, dancing over the foundation the synthesizer was playing, mingling with the electronic accents added by the presses of a semi-prerecorded button. Drums glued it together and pressed it forward through the beginning. Axel inhaled on the last beat before the final layer, shouting his first syllable into the sound around him;

"_Don't _take forever

to say what you—don't—know!

Don't try to pull a light

From where you cannot see

I see ev—ry—day!

Laid out like a road before me,

I don't walk ahead

Just to see myself move.

Just to see myself move…

I'll save a little time for you!

I'll wait a little while for you!

Just open up your eyes,

Give up a little pride,

And move into another view!

Of the world…

Of my world…

Don't take up—this—life!

With what you don't care about,

With what you want to leave behind,

I know you better than that

I see you—and—me!

I see everything as perfect,

I see times of joy,

But then I see your pain

See my pain….

I'll save a little time for you!

I'll wait a little while for you!

Just open up your eyes,

Give up a little pride,

And move into another view!

Of my world!

I'll save a little time for you!

I'll wait a little while for you!

Just open up your eyes,

Give up a little pride,

And move into another view!

Of my world!

Take my hand, and my world!

_Don't—wait_—!

"Wooo!!" Demyx said, jabbing his fist in the air, "We're going to kick _ass_ at Jack's!"

"We've still got one more song to make," Namine said. "And the base needs to be a bit lower. You're making it hard to blend everything, Larxene."

"Just blend it better," Larxene shot back.

Namine pressed her lips together. She didn't say anything else.

"Are we done yet?" Zexion asked, watching them all from under his blue-black hair.

"Well Axel's got to come up with the last song and we know all the others," Larxene said. She shrugged, whipping her cigarette out from behind her ear, "I'd say we're done."

She lit it.

Zexion was already getting up from behind the drum set.

"I'm going to study."

"What _for_?" Larxene asked, frowning, "School just started. We've got, like, three weeks before we have to start worrying about doing anything."

"AP," Zexion replied. "Lit. I've got to read this play by the end of the week. And analyze it. And stuff."

"Yuck," Demyx said, making a face, "That sucks."

"Yeah, seriously," Larxene added.

Zexion shrugged.

"It's supposed to be classic, so hopefully it's the good kind of classic, instead of the boring kind. Later."

He left, tapping his drumsticks on the side of his leg as he went.

"I'm leaving too," Larxene said, checking her watch, "I've got to get to work."

"You work on school days?" Demyx asked.

"Yes, because my supervisor's an ass."

"Wow."

"Yeah, but it's better than not having money."

She put her base in its case and left. By this point, Axel was shifting all the amps to the side to make room for his brother's car.

"Hey, Demyx, get me that other amp, will you?"

Demyx snapped the clamps on his guitar case shut, and grabbed the amp next to him.

"Thanks."

"…You feeling all right?"

The amp landed on the concrete garage floor with a _thunk_.

"What do you mean?" Axel asked, busying himself with the cords again.

"You've been all…serious since Roxas talked to you yesterday."

Axel shrugged.

"How is that different from normal?"

Demyx kneeled next to him.

"Why don't you talk to him? Just relax!"

"I already did," Axel said, "And I just acted stupid."

"Come on! It can't be that hard—"

"Yes," Axel said, standing up again, "It can."

He grabbed the microphone and collapsed the stand.

"So you're just going to be like _this_? Come on, this is getting stupid—"

"Shut up, Demyx."

He put the collapsed stand on top of the amps. Namine had already moved her equipment aside; there was now enough room in the garage for Reno's compact car.

He went back into the house, making sure to shut the garage door before he left. Demyx and Namine could find their way out—they'd only been here a million times before…

* * *

Axel found himself staring at the ceiling of his room, where all the little glow-in-the-dark stars were stuck in one corner. He'd wanted to put them all over the room at one point, but he'd run out of allowance to get enough packages of them. The takeover had stopped in the corner they'd stared in, right above his bed.

He stared at them now, barely noticeable against the white paint. Nausea plagued him again, and he clutched his stomach, trying to ignore it. It wasn't fair…he shouldn't be having problems eating when he wasn't sick. This was middle school stuff—middle school girly stuff, for that matter. Yet here he was, trying not to think about a person who shouldn't have been filling up his mind like this…

He really needed to come up with another song before next weekend. They needed time to practice, and he didn't want to play anything old. Everyone at Jack's had heard it all already. And they liked it, but he was sick of singing it. That's what he needed to focus on...not Roxas...

He turned on his side. He heard someone walking up the stairs, and opening the door. He didn't have to look to know who it was; he knew his brother didn't walk that softly.

"Hey," Namine said.

"Hi."

"I have a sketch," she said brightly, "I wanted to know if you thought it looked like you—"

"It does," Axel said, without moving. "Knowing you, it probably looks like a photo."

Namine walked over and knelt in front of Axel's bed so that Axel was looking right at her. She pulled her sketchbook out.

"Just look," she said.

From his sideways position, it looked like a bunch of scribbles. Reluctantly, Axel shifted to a sitting position. Namine plopped the sketchbook in his lap.

"Flames," she said, pointing to the curling lines around the figure in the middle, "See?"

When she pointed it out, it suddenly clicked together. And it was amazing.

Large, angry, irregular flames curled around the tall, thin figure in the middle of the drawing, bending to his contours, making it seem as though he were controlling them at will. His arms were held out from his sides, straight and tense like a taut rope. He held thin, weapon-like circles in his hands, with large sharp spikes around the edges. He was wearing a long black trenchcoat-thing, which was open and billowing out around him, catching the hot air. He was wearing black boots over tight black pants and a black sleeveless shirt underneath.

The most shocking part of the sketch, though, was the face. She'd captured the craziness of his hair, which blended in with the chaos around him. His eyes were detailed, large and eager. He was grinning. She'd even drawn in his tattoos under his eyes.

After a couple minutes of just staring at the sketch, Axel found that he really didn't have words for it. It was just….

"You like it?"

Namine's voice brought him back to his room. She'd moved to his desk chair at this point, which she was kneeling on.

"I—I, um…._wow_," Axel said, looking back down at the drawing, "That's…quite the fire."

"Uh-huh!" Namine said. She was smiling.

"And you just whipped this up in a day?"

"An evening," Namine corrected. "I'm on a timeline, so I've got to hurry. It's all I did last night. Besides eat a salad."

Axel looked at the picture again.

"I look insane," he said.

"You kind of do, when you're excited about something," Namine said. "I thought of the chakrams because of your name."

"The what?"

"The things you're holding," she said, pointing to the spiked circles, "They're called chakrams."

"Oh. How does that connect to my name, though?"

"Think about it," she said, holding out her hands, "What goes between the wheels of a car?"

Axel let the sketchbook fall on his lap again.

"An axel," he said flatly, "Ha ha ha. Like I haven't heard _that _one before."

"You can set them on fire and throw them," she said, making a throwing motion with her own arm, "and they go 'woosh'! And cut up enemies. Then they come back to you."

"Wow. That's pretty badass."

"I thought so," Namine said. "Does that make up for the lame name pun?"

Axel nodded.

"Definitely."

Namine reached for the sketchbook. Axel handed it back to her.

"I'll color it tomorrow, probably," she said, looking at it, "I've got some homework to do tonight. It'll probably work better when it's colored."

"Work better?" Axel echoed, "You're still trying to get me back to normal with a drawing? I mean, yeah, it's cool, but—"

"It'll look cooler when it's colored," she said, shutting the sketchbook, "don't throw up yet!"

And with that, she got up, said goodbye, and was out the door before Axel had a chance to make any more protests. He sighed, as he heard the front door shut. She'd obviously made up her mind, and there was nothing he could do about it.

He didn't feel nauseous anymore, though. If nothing else, she'd taken his mind off of things. He took the chance to eat something; after their weird encounter at lunch the day before, his condition had only gotten worse…

* * *

While at his locker the next morning, Axel saw a flash of blond out of the corner of his eye.

"You _can't_ have colored in all that fire in one night!" Axel exclaimed in disbelief, shutting the door and looking down—

A face that was not Namine's looked back up at him. One blond eyebrow was higher than the other, making Roxas look slightly confused.

"Fire?" he asked politely.

Anything that had been going on in Axel's brain jumped out of his ears and abandoned him. He didn't move.

Roxas' confused expression deepened.

"Um…Axel?" he asked, "Are you all right?"

Finally—whether it was Roxas saying his name, or just his mind trying to jolt itself back into working function again, Axel jumped as though startled.

"Yeah!" he said, a little too loudly, "Fine! I, uh…I—I thought you were Namine! Th—that's why I was talking about coloring, and fire, and all…that…"

Axel realized he was making circular motions in the air with his hand as he talked. He cleared his throat, and shoved his hand into his jeans pocket. He tried not to think about how hot his face felt at the moment…

"Oh, okay," Roxas was saying. "So she's drawing something with fire in it?"

"Y-yeah," Axel said, looking at his feet, "It's, um…fire, yeah. Lots of…fire..."

"Cool."

An awkward silence passed over them. Roxas took the chance to pull something out of his pocket.

"Hey, I wanted to give this to someone," he said, holding out a ticket, "everyone I've talked to is already doing something, though. I got them from my friend Namine—well, you know her, you sit at lunch with her—"

Axel stared, dumbfounded, at a ticket to the show at Jack's Tavern, weekend after next. The band name "Hibiscus" was printed in big lettering across the stub.

"In fact, she probably already gave you one, didn't she?"

Dumbly, Axel shook his head.

"N—No, she didn't," he managed to force out, still staring at his own band name. He remembered when Zexion had come up with that…they'd all decided that it had had a nice ring to it. 'Hibiscus—because it's good for you!' Demyx had said, creating a jingle to go with the phrase on the spot—

"So do you want it?"

"U-um…I'm—um…" Axel tried to explain, but the evil gods of fate had decided that it was time for school to start; the bell rang.

"Well if you've got something else, just give it back to me later. If nothing else I could force my brother to go, or something."

"I—"

"See you later," Roxas said, giving Axel a small smile before turning around and walking down the hallway.

"Gyuh….." Axel let out the breath he'd been holding. Gathering what little sense he had left back together, he shoved the ticket into his book, and made his shaken way to class.

Oh, he was going to _kill _Namine…

* * *

A/N: Oh, snap, it's a dilemma!

I wrote the lyrics myself. They started from a something I scribbled down a while ago, and then I edited them. Somehow the singer from Incubus popped into my head while I was doing so. Not that I think that's what Axel would sound like, but I'll leave that to your imagination.

And Zexion's a drummer. Yay. Wasn't planning that either, but somehow it fit in my head. So there he is. He's probably the student worker behind the counter at your local library, being so OC that it probably hurts.

Probably.

See you next week!

--Trempush


	4. Stumped

A/N: Poor Roxas...

Reviewer Shout-out: Chibi McFu, Utsuro, xHanako, Catwiskers10

You guys are AWESOME!

Chapter Four: Stumped

* * *

Roxas walked to his first class, more than a little confused. Axel was…an interesting person, to say the least. He'd only meant to offer him one of the two tickets that Namine had given him, and somehow it had turned into one of the strangest conversations Roxas had ever had in his life.

Was there something about Roxas that made Axel turn into a stuttering catastrophe? Had Namine told Axel something so embarrassing about Roxas that Axel couldn't find it in himself to act normal around him? It was possible Sora had told some kid stories to Kairi, which could have gotten passed to Namine—though Roxas couldn't think of what embarrassing story could make a practical stranger _that _awkward around him.

Axel was red as anything by the end of their conversaion; just like he'd been at the lunch table, when Roxas had apologized for being so cold to him earlier—which, by the way, he'd only done because Axel had seemed so hurt over the whole thing. Axel wasn't very socially apt, Roxas concluded. Not that Roxas was the best in that department either, so in a way, it made them even.

Just in…different ways…

Roxas shook his head. If he didn't see Axel again, Roxas would assume that he'd kept the ticket and was going to try and make an effort to come. He had no idea what kind of music Namine and her band played, but that wasn't his concern. She had thrown out a few terms to describe their style, but Roxas hadn't recognized any of them. Namine had told him to come anyway. Bring a friend, she'd said.

And then all his friends had been too busy. Namine had shoved the pair of tickets into his hands Wednesday morning, and he'd spent all day trying to shuffle the second one off to someone else. He had asked all his close friends, all the people he talked to in his classes, and had almost handed it off to someone in his AP calculus class when she'd given it back, telling him she already had a boyfriend. He tried to explain, but she didn't seem to believe him.

At the end of the day, he figured it was what he got for having a bunch of overachievers as friends; the one time he actually was going to do something other than study, and everyone else had already scheduled enough school-related mayhem to drive them insane.

Hayner was the only one who flat-out didn't want to go; he'd seen the band before, and he hadn't liked them. Something about them being too hardcore.

That was a lot of things in Hayner's mind, though. That, and Roxas had found over the years that if there was a band that Hayner didn't like, there was a good chance that Roxas liked it. So at least his interest was piqued, if only a little bit. Enough to follow through with going, anyway.

The last person he'd thought of was Axel. Who had gaped at Roxas like he'd just beamed himself out of a UFO and asked where his leader was. Thankfully the bell had rung, and Roxas gladly took the chance to leave him with the stupid thing, since he wasn't going to find anyone else that would want them; he'd already asked his brother. His brother already had a ticket.

Roxas slumped in his chair in his first class, and put Axel out of his mind for the moment in favor of taking notes. He'd have to ask Namine about a fire drawing, when he saw her next….

* * *

"Hey, Sora."

"Hi," he said, sitting next to Roxas on the bus. Roxas always got there before his brother did, so he always got the window seat.

"You look excited about life," Sora said, when he saw Roxas' expression.

"I'm just thinking," he said, ignoring the sarcasm.

"About what?"

"... Do you know anyone named Axel?"

"Axel as in Hibiscus Axel?"

Roxas blinked.

"Huh?"

"Hibiscus," Sora said, "The band Namine's in? Axel's the lead singer."

"...You're kidding."

Sora shook his head.

"Nope—Tall guy, red hair, wears black all the time?"

"Yeah, that one."

Sora nodded again.

"He's the lead singer," he repeated.

The sheer stupidity of the situation fell down on Roxas, and he smacked his hand over his eyes—the first thing he always did when he got embarrassed about something.

"What happened?" Sora asked, his tone appropriately apprehensive. Roxas took his hand down, and looked at his brother.

"So you're telling me," he said, "That I just gave the lead singer of Namine's band a ticket to his own concert this morning?"

"Are you serious?" Sora asked.

"No one else would take it!" Roxas defended, "Everyone's too busy! I only met him Monday, but it was better than giving it to some random person I've never talked to, or even worse, giving it back to Namine—"

"How did you give it to him?"

"I just walked up and handed it to him!" Roxas exclaimed, "I asked him if Namine had already given him one, since I knew they know each other, and he said no! So I gave it to him!"

"...And he didn't even try to tell you—"

"No!" Roxas exclaimed again, lowering his voice this time; he doubted anyone could hear them over the roar of the engine and the clattering of the bus itself, but better safe than sorry.

"He just stood there staring at me like I had a second head!"

Sora started laughing.

Loudly.

For the rest of the bus ride, Roxas cursed his luck—and then Axel, for good measure. He considered just not going altogether, out of embarrassment more than anything. Sora convinced him out of it, reminding him that Namine was in it, too, and this was an important concert for them; they were the featured band for the first time (hence their name on the ticket), so all the band members were working to get the best turnout—to the point where Namine had pulled a few strings got get a handful tickets before they went on sale officially that Friday.

He thought it strange that Namine had given Roxas his two tickets for free.

"She never does that," Sora commented, frowning. "She's gotten tickets early before, but she never just gives them out. Are you sure she didn't tell you to pay her back later?"

"She told me to come and bring a friend," Roxas said, kicking a pebble back into someone's yard as they made their way home from the bus stop.

Sora crossed his arms, thinking.

"She must be planning something…"

Roxas kicked another rock further down the sidewalk.

"Well, if it was to force me to be more social, it failed," he said, "That guy is crazy, by the way."

"Who, Axel?"

"Yeah."

"You should hear him during practice," Sora laughed, "I was over there one time when they were at Kairi's. He got so excited about one of the songs that he ended up knocking over Kairi's dad's sawhorse in the corner of the garage. He yells a lot."

"…_Really_?"

"Yeah!" Sora said, "Apparently he's all over the place when he's singing. Kairi says he's really good at working the crowd at concerts."

"…You're sure this is Axel _Hartworth_?"

Sora stepped aside at their front door to make way for Roxas and the house key.

"I don't know his last name," Sora said, "But how many Axels can there be in one place...?"

Roxas opened the front door, frowning. This was so _strange_...

"What is it?" Sora asked, seeing his expression.

Roxas shook his head, as he slammed the door shut again.

"Maybe something happened," he said, "because the Axel I've been talking to is everything but loud."

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

Roxas put his backpack by the foot of the stairs.

"Well," he said, "This morning he was nervous and awkward, stammering, and turning red."

"_Really_?"

"Yeah."

They exchanged confused glances.

"Well," Sora said, scratching his head, "He is unpredictable...maybe he's only like that onstage..."

"Who knows?" Roxas said. "All I know is that he's a freak."

He headed into the kitchen.

"Well, does he act like that around other people?" Sora asked, following him.

"I don't know," Roxas said, "I have a good feeling he doesn't blush and stutter around Namine—he thought I was her at first, when I talked to him this morning.

Sora pulled his head out of the fridge and shut the door, string cheese in hand.

"You don't...look like Namine..."

"He was looking in his locker for something," Roxas explained, as he filled a glass with water, "I think he just saw my hair."

"_Oh..._I guess that makes sense..." Sora made strange faces of effort as he tried to understand.

"And then he saw it was me. And started acting stupid."

"I see."

Roxas sat at the circular kitchen table.

Sora leaned against the fridge, and started to peel strings off and roll them up, throwing them in the air and catching them in his mouth.

"Was he like that when you saw him Monday?"

"Monday wasn't _as _weird."

"What happened?"

"Remember you were playing soccer after school, and I was sitting on the side?"

"Yeah, and then you kicked my ass on Seifer and Riku's team. Was he there?"

"Yeah, he was there," Roxas said. Sora frowned.

"I don't remember that…"

"Anyway," Roxas said, knowing his brother lost track of the world when he started playing sports, "He pops out of nowhere, sits down, and then he starts talking as if we've met before and he's just catching up, or something. Now I have no idea who this guy is, so I asked him if I'd met him somewhere, because I didn't recognize him."

Sora laughed.

"Wow, Roxas. Sensitive much?"

"It was a perfectly logical question!" Roxas exclaimed. Sora just laughed more.

"So what happened after that?" he asked, after catching Roxas' glare and calming down.

"He got depressed and quiet," Roxas said, "And then he left. I felt bad, so I was going to apologize to him the next day. Then I found out he's in my lunch period, so I went over there—That's how I knew he was friends with Namine 'cause she was at his table. I start apologizing, and he just—sits there, staring at me and turning red. And _then_," he continued, "and this is where things get _really_ weird—he tells me that he in fact _hasn't_ met me before, and that he just 'saw me in the hallways and wanted to say hi'."

He made air quotes as he talked.

"_How_ is this supposed to make sense—?"

Sora's eyes widened; he'd just had an epiphany.

"Whoa," he said, holding up a finger, "Wait a minute."

"What?" Roxas asked.

"You know what this sounds like, right?"

"…What?" Roxas repeated, still lost.

"Think about it," Sora said, "It's only when _you_ show up he starts blushing and stuttering and can't speak. To the point where he couldn't tell you he's the singer for the band whose concert you invited him to."

When Roxas didn't respond, Sora added,

"If you were a girl, what would your immediate reaction be?"

Roxas raised an eyebrow.

"Are you trying to tell me that this guy likes me?"

Sora shrugged, giving Roxas his best 'I don't know' face.

"It's the first thing that came to _my_ mind..."

For a moment, Roxas just stared at his brother. He relayed all the facts he'd gathered about this strange kid so far through his mind. He frowned again.

"That _can't_ be it…"

"What else could it be?" Sora said, sitting down across from Roxas, "It's not like he's got a reason to be afraid of you, or anything."

"But he's never met me before!" Roxas said, "He's only seen me in the hallways! How could someone have such a huge crush on someone they've never even spoken to?"

"Eew," Sora said, his eyes widening again, "What if he's one of those creepy stalker guys who's been watching you?"

"Then why would he have talked to me?"

"Hey, it happened in that movie with the singer girl!" Sora exclaimed, pointing a dramatic finger at Roxas.

"That was a horror movie," Roxas said flatly. "And I really don't think he's a stalker—"

"It's always the quiet ones!"

"—because he'd have to _think_ first," Roxas finished.

Sora let his arm drop to the table again.

"Oh."

Roxas sighed.

"It's just confusing, that's all. And weird."

"I'd say," Sora agreed. He mashed the rest of the string cheese into his mouth, tossing the wrapper into the garbage next to him him without looking.

"…Did it go in?"

"Yeah, actually."

"Score!" Sora looked for himself. When he turned around again, he saw Roxas' expression.

"You know…Kairi's good at figuring out these kinds of things," he said. "Maybe you should ask her about it."

"It's not like I'm friends with this guy, or anything," Roxas said, "I don't see why I have to waste my whole evening on him."

He looked at the clock and grimaced. He was already going to have to stay up late…

He heard beeping. Sora was holding his cellphone up to his ear, not meeting Roxas' eyes as he waited for Kairi to pick up on the other end.

"Sora—!"

"Hey, Kairi!" he said brightly.

Roxas rolled his eyes.

"This is getting ridiculous—

"Actually, Roxas wants to talk to you."

"No I don't—!"

"Yeah, here, I'll put you on speaker phone."

Another beep, and they could both hear background noise from Kairi's house.

"Roxas?"

"Hi, Kairi…"

"What's up?" Kairi already sounded worried.

"It's nothing—"

"It's not nothing!" Sora interrupted, "Now he's got me confused too!"

"Who's got who confused?"

Roxas gave his brother a good, mean glare. Sora jabbed his finger at the phone.

"Come on!" He hissed, under his breath.

"What's going on?" Kairi asked again.

"Sora wanted me to tell you about this guy I just finished telling him about," Roxas said, "His name's Axel…"

* * *

"…So what do you think, Kairi? What's his deal?" Sora asked.

There was a pause, in which Roxas found himself leaning in towards Sora's cellphone. Now that he'd reiterated the whole thing, he was curious…

"I think Sora's right."

"_What?!_" Roxas exclaimed, despite himself.

"I said I _think_," she repeated, "but Namine would know. I'll ask her about it tonight."

"That can't be it!"

"Why not, Roxas?"

"Because—don't you have to know about someone before you can like them?"

"Ever heard of a celebrity crush?" Kairi returned flatly.

"…I'm not a celebrity!"

"It can work the same way," Kairi said, "and you may have talked to him before and you just don't remember. Maybe he thought you did, but it was obvious that you didn't, so he covered it up when you apologized to him later. Besides," she added, "It doesn't have to make sense. Half the time crushes don't make sense anyway."

"But—!"

"It's not impossible," Kairi said, "If that's what you're thinking. But he's a bit of an eccentric, so I mean really, it could be anything."

"Ugh…"

Roxas got up. He felt mentally drained. Already.

"I've got homework to do," he said, pushing his chair in.

"Don't think about it too much, Roxas," Kairi said, "After all, it could be nothing related to you."

"Thanks, Kairi." He looked at the clock again. "I'll do that."

"Good."

He left the kitchen and went up to his room, remembering to pick up his backpack on his way up the stairs.

* * *

A/N: Wahaha, now he's got everyone else wondering. What will happen next?

Well, actually, I know what's going to happen next up until chapter 12, which I'm working on. But that's a secret. :D

--Trempush.


	5. Inspiration

A/N: Poor Axel…

Reviewer Shout-out: Catwiskers10, xHanako, ChibiMcFu

Thank you! You guys are great!

Chapter Five: Inspiration

* * *

"YOU!"

Namine looked up; she'd just finished pulling the plastic wrap off her breadless sandwich.

"Hi, Axel," she said, adjusting her glasses.

Axel fell into his seat so hard that the table lurched, sending someone's lunch flying off at the other end. They started yelling obscenities towards them (and Larxene started yelling back for the hell of it), but they were drowned out by Axel's next accusation.

"YOU GAVE HIM _TICKETS_!"

He slammed his hands on the table, looking torn between urges to kill and cry.

"_WHY?!"_

Quietly, Namine righted her water bottle, which had gotten knocked over by Axel's dramatics.

"We need a big turnout," she said, "We need as many people as possible—"

"_WhatisitworthifIcantsing?!"_ Axel hissed.

"What?"

Axel hung his head.

"Namine, you _know_ how I get when I see him!" His voice was bordering on a whine, "If he's there at the concert, which he _will_ be, because you _invited_ him, then I'll know that he's _there_ and I'll act like I _always_ do and I won't be able to say _anything_ at all _much less_ _sing_!"

He grabbed her hands and clutched them, giving her big, pleading eyes as he asked,

"Namine, what am I going to _do_?!"

Namine sighed. She figured this would happen…

"Axel," she said, "If you want to sing at this concert, I suggest you find a way to be able to sing in front of him before then."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Axel blithered, "Am I just supposed to start singing at him in the hallway?!"

"Well, you need to think of something before Saturday after next," she said. She wrenched her hands from his death grip, and picked up her sandwich.

"…That's it? That's all you're going to give me?"

Namine nodded.

"That's it," She muffled through her sandwich.

"Ugh—!" he left his head fall on the table with a loud _thunk._

"Hey, you! Redhead!"

A guy in camo-print pants and a tan shirt was standing next to Axel, arms crossed. His frown wasn't very convincing.

"_What?_" Axel snapped, not moving his head.

"What do you think you're doing, making the lunch table jump like that?"

Uh-oh.

Namine started wrapping her sandwich again, after seeing the glare Larxene was giving the kid. Apparently he was from the group she was yelling at just a few seconds ago…

Axel lifted his head again. His expression had changed from helpless to menacing.

"Look, it's not my fault these tables are cheap, _jackass_!"

"They work for the rest of us," the kid shot back, "and now we've all lost our lunch because you can't use them right—"

Before any of them could blink, Axel was out of his seat and in the kid's face, instantly bristling.

"You wanna say that again, twerp?"

"There's the fire," Namine said, under her breath. Next to her, Demyx flinched; he had heard her. He knew what that meant, too.

"hoo, boy…" He whispered.

The kid's eyes shifted; he hadn't been expecting that. He still held his ground, though.

"It's a lunchroom!" he said, regaining his composure, "you shouldn't be messing around like that anyway—"

Axel grabbed his expensive shirt front roughly, yanking him upwards so that he could threaten him while standing straight, instead of hunched over.

"You want messing around?" he hissed, "You annoy me any more kid, and I'll _show_ you how messed up I can make you!"

Everyone in the lunchroom was staring in their direction at this point; Namine could feel the tension in the air, the anticipation of a fight. She put the rest of her sandwich in her lunch bag; she could eat it in art class.

The kid grabbed Axel's hand, pushing it back; his heels were off the ground.

"Hey man, forget it," he said; he looked scared, now, "I was just saying—"

"I don't like you," Axel interrupted, his eyes narrowing to a glare.

"I—"

"And if you ever come back over here again, you're not going to like me, either."

He shoved the kid away, causing him to stumble backward.

"Now go screw off before you wet yourself, or something."

The kid glared at him for a moment, once he'd regained his balance.

"You're a jerk!" he said, clenching his fists, "Thinking you can push other people around like that—"

"Hayner!"

All eyes in the cafeteria turned to see Roxas walk up next to the kid and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down! It's not worth a fight!"

"You saw what he did!" the kid—apparently named Hayner—exclaimed, pointing in the direction of the table.

"Dude, leave it!"

"It's the principle of—"

"Well obviously he's not listening!" Roxas cut him off, rounding on Hayner, "so back off before this gets serious, all right?"

Hayner contemplated this for a moment, still glaring at Axel. Finally, he relaxed.

"Fine," he said, "he's not worth detention anyway."

He walked off.

Roxas rounded on Axel.

"May I ask why you were threatening my friend?"

"You're friends with that ass?" Axel shot back.

"Yes, I am," Roxas said, unfazed, "Now why were you threatening him?"

For a tense moment, it looked as though Axel was going to lose his coherence. It was probably his anger, Namine thought later, that kept him glued together.

"He was being pissy," he said, "You need better friends."

And on that note, Axel turned around and stalked out of the lunchroom. Everyone watched him as he went; Namine could feel the rumors starting as the chatter of the lunchroom welled up again to its normal roar.

"Better friends?" Roxas echoed, "What the hell?"

The bell rang. Muttering something under his breath, Roxas disappeared into the crowd, going back to wherever his lunch table was.

"Wow," Demyx said, "I guess that counts as…talking to him?"

Namine got out of her seat.

"Maybe..."

* * *

"This…is interesting."

Namine lifted her orange colored pencil just as Mr. Marl took the sketchpad out from under her hand. He held it, his steely blue eyes scanning every inch of the page.

"…I like the theme," he said finally, "element portraits." He looked up. "Is this someone you know?"

Namine nodded.

He nodded, and handed the sketchbook back to Namine.

"Keep going," he said lazily

Namine was already coloring where she left off.

* * *

"Whoa."

"Does it look like fire?" Namine asked, holding it out for her sister to see.

Kairi nodded vigorously.

"Yes," she said, wide-eyed, "it looks like I could touch it…"

"Good," Namine shut the sketchbook again.. "This is for my portfolio, so it has to be really good."

"I don't think you'll have a problem applying to art school," Kairi said.

Namine smiled.

"I nope not."

"Now _regular_ college, on the other hand…"

They walked home, Namine listening to Kairi vent about all the things she had to worry about at the moment—and how insensitive Sora was being about it, as usual.

"I swear, he couldn't take a hint to save his life!" she said, as she opened the door to their house.

Namine laughed.

"Neither can Roxas, I've noticed," she said, "maybe it's a family thing."

"Yeah, probably…Oh! Speaking of Roxas, I need to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"Does Axel like him?"

Namine looked at her twin.

"Does Roxas suspect something?"

"Well, he was really confused about Axel, so he told Sora about it, which didn't help anything, so then Sora called me about it. But I don't know if Axel's like that, so—

"He is," Namine interrupted.

"…I thought so," Kairi said, nodding, "I wasn't sure, though."

"Roxas will be really confused about him now," Namine added.

"Why?"

"Well, at lunch today…"

She told her sister the whole story. Kairi shook her head, afterward, making the comment that it figured Axel would say something stupid like that out of nervousness. Namine agreed.

"Now he might have just lost his chance to get to know Roxas," Kairi added.

"We'll see," Namine said.

* * *

A different ringtone echoed throughout Namine's room that evening, not long after she had settled in her room. She picked it up.

"Hi, Axel."

"Kill me."

Her pencil stopped for a moment, as she thought for a brief moment.

"…I'm going to come over."

_Snap._

* * *

Axel answered the door when she got there.

"Hi," he said. He looked thoroughly depressed.

"Is this about Roxas?"

Axel grimaced.

"Ever want to take an eraser and just start removing memories from your mind? Like a wrong answer on a math test…?"

"Can I come in first?"

"Oh," Axel said, stepping aside, "Yeah, sure…"

She heard movements in the kitchen.

"Hi Reno!" she called.

Axel's older brother stuck his head out of the kitchen doorway.

"Hey," he said, looking from Namine to Axel, "come to do crisis control?"

"Something like that," Namine said, setting her messenger bag on the grand piano that took up most of their small living room.

"He hasn't talked to me all evening," Reno said, his green eyes glancing again in Axel's direction, "I practically had to shove his phone down his throat to get him to call someone else."

"I would have called anyway!" Axel defended, "You didn't have to threaten me with your stick!"

"Electro-Mag," Reno corrected, pointing at Axel with the wooden spoon in his hand, "and yes I did." He stepped back into the kitchen.

"Aren't you not even supposed to bring that home?" Axel called.

"I've got permission," Reno said casually, "Now get in here and finish this…whatever I made."

Axel's eyes widened.

"What does that mean?"

"It means a bunch of leftovers," he said. Namine and Axel walked over to the kitchen doorway to see Reno staring at a questionable-looking concoction shoved into a glass pan. The counter was littered with Rubbermaid containers that looked like they'd held various bits of previous dinners. Spaghetti was hanging out of one side of the pan, and there was some ground beef piled into another.

Reno scratched his head.

"I guess you could mix it, or something," he said.

"It looks disgusting!"

Namine laughed.

"Well, it's what we've got. Excuse me," he walked past them into the living room again. He picked up his electro-mag (a two-foot-long nightstick with a nasty taser at one end), and put it on his shoulder.

"I'm going to work. If you're not asleep when I come back,"

He clicked a button. The end over his shoulder crackled, and a blue light flashed in the air

"Bzzt!" he said, grinning.

"That doesn't look very nice," Namine said nonchalantly; she'd never seen him turn the thing on.

"It wears off after a while," Axel said shrugging. He shuffled into the kitchen to repair the monstrosity in the baking pan. Reno's grin faded; he seemed genuinely worried. Axel must not have been pleasant when he had come home.

"If you could pull him out of this..." he said in a lowered voice.

"I'll try," Namine said. She smiled. Reno returned some semblance of one; he looked distracted by his own thoughts, though.

"Thanks," he said.

Reno left. They both heard the car start and the garage door open and then close again, once he was gone.

"Does it really wear off after a while?" Namine asked, coming back into the kitchen. Axel was using two forks to try and salvage his dinner.

"It takes a bit, actually. He's only done it to me once, and it was an accident. He wouldn't taser me on purpose."

"I wouldn't think so," Namine said. After making sure she wouldn't get anything on her sterile white Capri pants, she perched herself on the countertop opposite to where Axel was working.

"So," she said, "You talked to Roxas."

"I just ruined every chance I had of actually getting to know him, if that's what you mean."

Namine swung her legs, watching her light blue flip-flops dangle from her feet.

"I wouldn't say that," she said.

Axel was silent.

A question fell into Namine's mind, and she decided to ask it—she'd never known the answer, and now seemed to be a good time...

"What is it that you like about Roxas?"

Axel paused in his mixing.

"It's…kind of complicated," he mumbled.

"When is it not?"

"...Good point."

Axel put the pan in the preheated oven, threw the forks into the sink next to Namine, and hoisted himself onto the counter on the other side of the sink.

"Let's watch the monster grow," he said dully.

They both looked at the thing in the oven, barely recognizable under the oven light.

"It _does_ look like it'll start moving," Namine commented.

A silence fell over them. Axel fidgeted. Namine sat still, waiting. She knew better than to prod Axel about this kind of thing.

"I guess…I like him because he's different." he finally said.

"Everyone's different," Namine countered.

"Yeah, I guess…I just—I don't know…"

"Yes you do," Namine prodded, "There's a reason."

"I know there's a reason," Axel said, clutching his stomach again, "I just…don't know what it is."

He sighed.

"Not that it matters anymore. He kind of hates me."

"I wouldn't say that."

"I called his friend an ass!"

"That doesn't mean he hates you."

"What about telling him he needs better friends?!" Axel shouted, "How does that make him _not _hate me?!"

Namine stared at her shoes again.

"_Ugh_, I'm so STUPID! Why do I do this to myself? Why do I always say the _worst _thing to say?!"

"You're nervous," Namine said calmly, looking at her friend. Axel had his hands shoved into his crazy hair.

"NO SHIT!"

Namine smiled.

"At least you know it."

Axel yanked his hands out again, leaving little finger-holes in the massive spikes.

"It doesn't help anything..."

"Well," Namine said, "Look at Larxene and I. We don't like each other and she insults me all the time, but she's still your friend."

"That's different," Axel said, frowning, "I need a bassist."

Namine laughed.

"Still. It might be the same with Roxas and Hayner. They've known each other their whole life, and it's not like Sora and Riku—"

"Sora and who?"

"Riku," Namine repeated, "Sora's best friend since birth, practically."

"Oh."

"Anyway," Namine said, "they're really close, like brothers. Hayner and Roxas, though, are really good friends but...they fight a lot. Saying Hayner was an ass would probably be something Roxas agreed on."

"…how do you know all this?"

Namine shrugged.

"Kairi," she said, "we're close. We'll tell each other things we've promised someone else to keep to ourselves."

"I'm never telling _you_ a secret again."

"Technically we're the same person," Namine said, smiling. "We've got the same DNA."

"Eew. That doesn't mean I want to tell Kairi anything," Axel said, making a face.

Namine laughed again.

"Like you don't tell Reno anything."

"I hardly see him," Axel said, "His shift usually starts two hours after school gets out."

"What about weekends?"

"Flying Helicopters," Axel said.

"Oh."

"Yup," Axel said, getting off the counter to inspect his dinner more closely through the oven door, "He would have been flying them all the time, if he didn't have me to take care of. So he's on security at the air base, and they let him fly on the weekends to keep him sharp, 'cause he's really talented at it. After I graduate, he's back full time."

Axel opened the oven.

"It doesn't smell like it looks," Namine said.

"If you're comparing it to a swamp monster," Axel said. He grabbed the potholders next to the stove and pulled the dish out, setting it on a burner on top to cool.

"You know, I'm never afraid of talking to people, but for some reason, Roxas…it's like he's on a different planet."

"…How so?" Namine asked. Axel turned off the stove.

"He just seems so—unapproachable," he said, turning to face Namine again, "He looks so bored most of the time. And when he doesn't look bored, he just looks…sad."

"That means he's unapproachable?"

"No, but it doesn't help…"

"He's in a lot of advanced classes," Namine said, "his life is pretty much books. And not just classic books, like Zexion. He's taking the hardest courses offered at the school."

Axel laughed.

"Maybe that's why I feel stupid around him," he said, "He's probably the smartest person there, and I'm…not…"

"Maybe you like him because you admire him," Namine said.

Axel thought about the suggestion for a moment.

"No," he said, thoughtfully, "More like…I know there's more to him. And I want to find out, but…there's no way I can…"

"So…" Namine thought aloud, "you're speechless around Roxas, because you want to know more, but you're afraid that trying to get to know him better will just push him further away."

"Yeah," Axel said, holding his stomach again, "Something like that...."

"Sounds like a song."

Axel laughed nervously.

"Yeah, a really depressing emo song—wait…"

He looked at Namine. She was smiling.

"That was a hint, wasn't it?"

Namine nodded.

"Maybe if you write your feelings down, you'll be able to get through them."

It only took Axel a brief second to contemplate the suggestion—

Then he bolted into the living room, throwing himself in front of the piano so hard that he almost slid off the other side of the slick bench.

"Whoa—!"

Calmly, Namine hopped off the counter and followed.

"Paper!" he was shouting, frantically looking through the clutter stacked on top of the piano, "And where's a #*% _pen_ when I need it—?!"

* * *

A/N: So! Will Roxas ever speak to Axel again? Will Axel explode next time he sees Roxas? And what will Namine draw next?

Find out later!

--Trempush.


	6. Fight

A/N: And now…more confused Roxas!

Reivewer Shout-out: akuroku fan on fire, midnight41, xHanako, catwiskers10, 0Life-is-a-Song0,

Thank you all! I only hope that my story can continue to entertain you as much it has so far.

Chapter Six: Fight

* * *

Roxas managed to get his stuff at his lunch table and make it to his AP Bio class with a few minutes to spare. Which would have been nice, if not for—

"Okay, Roxas. You've got some explaining to do."

Roxas groaned; he knew Hayner would make a big deal out of this, he just _knew_ it…

"Hayner," Roxas said, setting his textbooks down, "that guy looked like he was about to _kill _you. And no offense, but you're not exactly the toughest guy around."

"Why did you intervene?" Hayner demanded.

"Hayner…" Olette leaned over; she sat on Roxas' other side. Pence sat in front of her, but he wasn't there yet.

"You should calm down. We'll just sit somewhere else for lunch."

Hayner slouched in his desk, glaring at the front of the classroom.

"I know you don't want to get suspended or anything," Roxas said, opening his binder, "and I know you're pretty stubborn when it comes to things like that."

"He was _scary_!" Olette said, "You would have gotten hurt if you'd gotten into a fight with him!"

"Yeah," Roxas said heavily, "That too…"

The image of Axel towering over Hayner, giving him a glare so unnerving that it raised the hairs on Roxas' skin, was still fresh on his mind. He found himself analyzing it, turning it over in his mind, trying to see the awkward person he'd been in front of Roxas somewhere in that expression…

What was impressed even more on Roxas' mind was what Axel had looked like after Hayner had left—when he was talking to Roxas evenly and clearly, for the first time.

Something else was there. Something that wasn't there only seconds earlier flashed up, arrested his face, lingering in Roxas' mind's eye long after he'd walked away…

"Roxas!"

He blinked; Mr. Vexen was glaring at him from the front of the room.

"What is the overall charge of Asparagine at pH 7?"

"U—um—"  
"Pay attention!"

Roxas jumped; Mr. Vexen seemed to be in an especially foul mood today. Roxas nodded.

"Now," Mr. Vexen said, turning back to the board where some structures were scribbled in black dry-erase marker, "If any of you had looked at the printouts I handed you yesterday, that question would have been_ very_ simple to answer..."

* * *

"Hi."

As Sora sat down next to him on the bus that afternoon, Roxas noticed the usual spring was gone from his step.

"Something happen?" he asked.

Sora heaved a huge sigh.

"Something _did_ happen," Roxas said.

"Kairi and I got into a fight."

"That's different—"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Roxas shut his mouth, swallowing the rest of his comment. Apparently it was serious, this time...

* * *

"Hey, Namine."

"Hi. Is this about Sora and Kairi?"

"...Yeah, actually," Roxas said; he was leaning against the side of the house while talking on his cellphone, after a particularly rocky conversation with his twin.

"I don't know anything, either."

"Kairi hasn't said anything to you?"

"No," Namine said in a hushed voice, "She won't come out of her room."

"...wow..."

"I thought the same thing," Namine said, "I don't know what's going on, but it seems pretty serious. How's Sora?"

"Well, I got called a lot of names. And then I got kicked out of his room."

"That's helpful."

"Very."

There was a pause. Roxas contemplated going for a walk; he knew he wasn't going to get any work done while in the house...

"I guess there's nothing to do but wait," Namine said.

"Yeah. If anything happens—"

"I'll call. Same for you."

"All right," Roxas said, "I'll do that."

"Hey, Roxas?"

"Yeah?"

"...If you were going to fight with something...what would you fight with?"

For a moment, Roxas tried to figure out what planet Namine could have gotten that question from.

"You mean…as in a weapon, or something?"

"Anything," She said, "Imagine you're fighting some bad guys. What are you using?"

"Um..." Roxas frowned, trying to imagine himself fighting 'bad guys'. He imagined he'd be very badass, but that could have been the influence of too many self-insertion action movie fantasies.

"I think twin blades are pretty cool," he said, thinking of one of his favorite martial arts movies, "so I guess if I were fighting bad guys, I'd want to use those."

"I can see that."

"…Really?" Roxas asked, making a face, "'cause I just pulled that out of my head—"

"It's perfect. Thank you!"

"What're you doing—?"

_click._

Roxas shook his head, and put his cellphone back in his pocket. He'd stopped asking a long time ago…

* * *

After telling Sora he was going to be out (with no response from Sora), Roxas pulled his old skateboard out of the coat closet and walked out the front door, locking it again with his spare key.

He had ridden around on his skateboard almost every day once upon a time. But then he started doing more homework and attending more study sessions, and his board ended up spending a lot of time in the closet. He still coasted around the neighborhood from time to time, just thinking. He knew all the streets in their subdivision like the back of his hand, now. He had boasted that he could skateboard the streets blind once to Sora, but then he had actually put Roxas up to it. That had ended in a disaster involving a streetlight pole and Roxas' face.

Roxas laughed a little, at the memory. He was surprised Sora didn't have to get stitches, he was laughing so hard…

It didn't take long for him to get the hang of it again; he sailed down through the streets, his body remembering the feeling of every turn, when to take it, how far to lean into it…it was therapeutic.

It was on a very deserted, level stretch of street when he heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, Roxas!"

Roxas saw silver hair flashing in the evening sun.

"Riku!" He slowed down and jumped off his skateboard just feet from where Riku stood in the street.

"What're you doing over here?" Riku asked, "I haven't seen you skating in a while."

"Can't focus," Roxas said, "What're you doing over here? You live near the beach."

"I'm helping my uncle," Riku said, motioning down the street, "He's moving out of his house."

"Really?" Roxas said, remembering that Riku _did_ have an uncle that lived nearby—he hadn't been over there in years, though…

"Yeah," Riku said, "He got a new job, so he has to move."

"Oh," Roxas said, "where to?"

"Hollow—something or other." Riku said, shaking his head, "I forget, but it's pretty far away."

"Well, if you guys need help, Sora and I—"

"That's fine," Riku interrupted, "We've got most of the stuff moved now. I'm guessing Sora's probably not feeling too good right now anyway."

"You heard about the fight?"

"I _heard _the fight."

"What happened?"

Riku frowned.

"Sora didn't say anything to you?"

"He's shut up in his room right now," Roxas said, "and I tried to ask him about it, but I got called a nerdface and shoved out again."

"Nerdface?" Riku laughed, "He's distraught over fighting with Kairi and he still calls you a nerdface?"

Roxas put up his hands.

"It's Sora," he said, "That's my only explanation."

"I didn't know he called you that anymore…"

"I didn't either. So what happened?" Roxas asked.

"Well, long story short…it was a panic attack. They're planning on going to different colleges. And they decide to bring it up the first week of school, when neither of them have been accepted anywhere yet—I think Kairi's looking at college applications and Sora's about to, or something like that. So it's a big mess, and then Kairi brought up the possibility of breaking up before college, which sent Sora into a panic, and…you get the point."

"Why are they worrying about this _now_?"

"Well, neither of them want to break up," Riku said, as if that were enough to clear up the entire thing.

"So they bring it up to see each other explode about it?" Roxas asked, not following.

"It's a relationship thing," Riku said, "you bring it up because you want to talk to the other person about it and get it off your mind. But then the other person reacts, and it spirals out from there, because now the both of you are panicking, and not doing any real talking. Which is what you were doing in the first place, before you brought it up. It magnifies everything, and solves nothing."

Roxas just stared at Riku for a moment.

"…How do you know about this kind of thing?"

"I've got a lot of friends who tell me about their relationships," Riku said, a small smile on his face. "I guess I'm just the go-to guy, when things get bad."

Roxas laughed.

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Maybe one of these days I'll actually get into one."

"But I thought—"

"A _real _relationship," Riku corrected, "one date with a bunch of different girls doesn't count."

"_Oh_," Roxas said, understanding, "one of those…"

"Yeah, speaking of a lack of relationships," Riku said, crossing his arms, "you have yet to go on a date."

Roxas shrugged.

"It's not like it's a race, or anything…"

"But aren't you even curious? I mean, seriously. You're a senior. This is getting ridiculous."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm going to run out and start looking for someone—"

"Come on!" Riku said, clapping his hand on Roxas' shoulder, "what are you, scared?"

"No," Roxas replied evenly, "it just means I don't want to. That's all."

Riku took his hand off again, looking thoughtfully at Roxas. He tilted his head slightly, and his eyes narrowed.

"What's that look for?" Roxas asked; last time he saw that look was when Riku figured out that Sora had a crush Kairi—and that it would probably work out. Which it did.

Riku shook his head.

"Nothing," he said, smiling.

Roxas raised an eyebrow.

"You just figured something out. I know you did."

"And?"

"You're going to tell me."

"_You_ already know," Riku said, grinning, "You just haven't told anyone else."

Roxas frowned.

"Now what's that supposed to mean?"

Riku laughed—and Roxas would have replied, but his phone decided to buzz in his pocket right then, thwarting him before he could think of something to say.

It turned out to be mom, wondering where he was and what had happened to Sora. He explained while motioning goodbye to Riku, getting back on his skateboard and coasting back the way he came. He tried to put Riku's comment out of his mind, much as he wanted to wonder about it…

* * *

"Hey, Namine."

"Oh. Hi."

"I talked to Riku. Apparently he was there, so he heard Sora and Kairi fighting."

"What was it about?"

"College," Roxas said; he was back outside again; mom was trying to get information out of Sora, and it wasn't working too well. He was being very stubborn. And depressed.

"That would make sense," Namine said in a pleasant tone. Roxas could hear the underlying sarcasm.

A pause.

"What color are your eyes, Roxas?"

"…huh?" Roxas asked, completely thrown off by the question.

"Your eyes," Namine repeated, "what color are they? I've never looked at them that closely, so I don't know."

"blue," Roxas replied, still bewildered. "Is this to do with the same thing you asked before?"

"Maybe."

"What—"

_click_

"Nam—ugh…"

He snapped the phone shut again. It was twilight now, and the air was warm. He vaguely heard mom trying to console Sora, but only if he listened too hard. They were probably having some deep conversation about college, and life, and all that.

A part of Roxas wanted to go upstairs and throw his two cents in, but he would probably distract Sora from listening. Because it was just that easy.

Roxas sighed; at least he could go back inside now…he did have homework to do…

* * *

A/N: Slightly short, but Roxas is being boring right now. So I'm going to move on with life. yay.


	7. Surprise

A/N: Let's see how Axel's doing on that songwriting—he's only got about a week now, thanks to Namine's evil scheming, lol…

Reviewer shout-out: Amakurkara, midnight41, catwiskers10, xHanako, shikamarurules1

Thank you all! Your feedback is much appreciated!

Chapter Seven: Surprise

* * *

"And then it'll go like this—"

Axel played the tune out on the piano.

Hibiscus was standing in Axel's living room, listening intently as he gave them the tune for the last song they needed to make a full set at the concert. It was Saturday; they had one week exactly.

"Got it?"

"Yeah," Demyx said; his fingers were motioning through the air, as though he were already playing along.

"And that's basically what I do for the entire thing?"

"Before the chord change, yeah. Zexion—"

"Slow, but energetic." Zexioin said, in his characteristic monotone.

"—okay. Larxene—"

"What's this song about, anyway? Shouldn't we know what it's about before we start playing it?"

"It's about a crush," Zexion said.

"_Oh_," Larxene said, putting her hand on her hip, "So we're helping you confess your love for Roxas, or something?"

"He wrote it to get over his nervousness," Namine said.

"—and it's not necessarily about him," Axel snapped, "It's general. So can you just learn it?" He glared at Larxene. Demyx, who was standing next to her, flinched. Larxene didn't seem to notice, although it wasn't a wonder; Demyx flinched a lot anyway.

"Okay, fine," Larxene snapped, "What do I play?"

Axel turned back to the piano.

"This."

Larxene watched his fingers as he played; he could feel her eyes on him.

"Something like that," he said, when he was done. "You can improvise a little, though."

"Thanks for the permission," Larxene said dryly.

Axel had to restrain himself from snapping again. He turned to Namine.

"I'm thinking something airy," she said, "you're singing about not being able to reach out. It should be airy."

"Good," he said, "All right, everyone, let's do this!"

It ended up being a good practice; by the end of the evening, Axel could tell everyone was in a better mood. Even Larxene.

She was the last one to leave, after practice; everyone else had other plans for later that evening.

"It's a pretty song," she said, after everything had been packed away, "the new one."

"Yeah," Axel absently, opening the door to the house, "I worked on it most of the night."

"When did you start?"

Axel shrugged.

"Seven, maybe? Yesterday."

"....and when did you finish?"

"three."

"It took you that long to figure out what to say?"

"No, but...there was a right way to put it down. I had to figure out what it was."

Larxene nodded.

"Makes sense."

Axel held the door open, after he'd stepped through.

"Coming in?"

* * *

"this is the worst casserole I've ever tasted in my life," Larxene said, eying what she'd just eaten off of her plate. She poked it. "Is there lo mein in here?"

"Everything Reno and I ate since Monday is in here," Axel said, after washing down a particularly nasty bite with too much water, "He decided to mix it all together yesterday so that we'd actually eat it all. Saves money."

"Damn. That sucks."

"Yeah."

They were sitting on the counter in front of the oven. Axel was sitting on the side Namine had been on yesterday.

"When is your mom going to be home?" Axel asked.

Larxene shook her head.

"Don't know," she said, "She'll call me when she is, though. She usually does, anyway."

"Usually?"

"Sometimes she forgets," Larxene explained, "she doesn't really remember much when her boyfriend is there."

She stabbed her food.

"Everything revolves around whoever 'he' is. It keeps changing."

Axel shoved another bite into his mouth. He'd heard all about Larxene's crazy mother when he'd first met her out in the back of the school, where all the smokers went during lunch. He didn't smoke, but he'd been looking for a bassist. She had mentioned it in passing a couple of times since then. Usually when her mom had dumped one boyfriend and had found another.

"I'm so sick of it," she said, "I mean, it's like she's there but she's not. I make sure everything's clean and shit. I even pay the bills sometimes because she'll forget about them. How fucking irresponsible is that?"

"Very," Axel said. "At least she's still there, though."

"Yeah, making my life hell. That's really helpful. You know how much more shitty your life would be if your dad hadn't drunk himself to death?"

"Well _technically_ he threw himself off the cliff at the beach," Axel corrected.

"His liver would probably have failed him by now, anyway," Larxene said, "And he _was_ drunk when he did it."

"Yeah," Axel agreed. He drank the last of his water.

"I imagine he was pretty shitty while he was still here."

Axel set his glass down.

"He never _was_ here."

"It still made you mad, though."

"You didn't know me then."

"I don't have to have known you."

Axel looked at Larxene. She was pushing food around on her plate.

"How can you be so calm about it?" she asked.

"About my crappy dad?"

"Yeah."

"Most of the songs I wrote at first were about him. I started the band after he died."

Larxene looked up.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. I've been angry about it. Now I'm not."

"...was that one we were practicing before about him?" she asked; he could tell she was thinking about it, now.

"Which one?"

"'I'll save a little time for you, I'll wait a little while for you—' that one?" Larxene repeated the lyrics.

"You memorized that?"

"You only sing it like a million times."

"oh. Yeah, that's about him."

Larxene nodded.

"I get it," she said, a small smile starting to form on her face.

Axel smiled too. He liked it when she smiled; it didn't happen very often, but it meant they weren't clashing about something. He could almost see her as an actual friend, at times like this.

Then she'd start insulting him again, or pushing buttons, and all hell would break loose. Again. It was a vicious cycle. He thought of what Namine said, about his and Larxene's relationship. He could start to see what she meant, when she was talking about Roxas and Hayner.

He still didn't like Hayner, though...little spoiled jerk...

"So you were talking to him in the song?"

"Yeah," Axel said. He shoved the last of his dinner into his mouth, and put the plate into the sink next to him. He swallowed without chewing.

"Let's go watch TV."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Larxene said.

* * *

The rest of the weekend was uneventful. Axel actually did what little homework he had, and spent the rest of the time hanging around in the house, waiting for some other inspiration to hit him like it did thursday evening. Nothing came to mind.

He saw his brother twice, for a couple hours on Saturday and again on Sunday. He told Axel he was off next weekend, and suggested that maybe they could do something. Axel handed him a couple tickets to his concert, and told him Rude (Reno's best friend and coworker) was invited.

Reno seemed pretty excited about that. It had been a while since he'd heard Axel sing. They agreed on doing something after the concert, too.

Axel was glad; when they did hang out, they really did get along well. They always had. Their dad had even said once or twice that Reno and Axel were raising each other more than he was raising them. He'd been drunk at the time, but he was always more coherent after a six pack.

In a sense, he and Reno weren't living any differently than they were before dad died.

Axel was glad when Monday came. He'd watched enough daytime TV to remember whey he hated soap operas; they made him feel more crazy than he already was...

* * *

"I have another drawing," Namine announced Monday morning, when Axel had sat down at the lunch table.

"Of me?" he asked warily; was he a series now...?

"Of Roxas," she said, "I wanted to show him first, but since I don't know when I'm going to see him next...I'll show you instead."

"Oh," Axel said, "why me?"

Namine sighed.

"Kairi and Sora aren't speaking to each other," she said, "I know they're going to make up, I just don't know when."

"Why are they fighting?" Axel asked. "Aren't they like, the most perfect couple in the universe, or something like that?"

Namine smiled.

"Not really. No one is."

"Well yeah, but—"

"Here's the picture," she said, opening her sketchbook.

She held it out for him to see.

Again, she had captured the energy of the moment. He wasn't standing like Axel had been; instead, he was up in the air, in the middle of a spin. He had two swords in his hands, which were both slicing through what looked like sheets of blackness—like he was hacking apart the background behind him. He was wearing the same kind of black cloak Axel had been, in her other drawing, with black pants, shirt, and boots underneath. One sword had a platinum hilt, and the other sword's hilt was black. Sparks were flying from both of them, cascading down around Roxas' figure like the flames had surrounded Axel.

For a long time, Axel found himself staring at Roxas' face. His teeth were bared, and he was focused intently on the movements around him—for there were things, undecipherable things, moving in the background. His eyes were very, very blue...

"Axel?"

Axel jumped—and caught his can of soda just before it hit the table.

"Hi, Larxene," he said, after he righted it.

"Ooh," she said looking over his shoulder, "Is that your crush?"

"Larxene—!"

"You sure made him handsome, Namine."

"Thanks," she said, smiling, "I asked him what kind of weapon he could see himself fighting with, and he said twin blades. I made them into long swords, though. It looked better, I think."

"That is...amazing..." Axel said, still staring at it.

Larxene laughed next to him.

"You must have it bad for Roxas," she said, "You're blushing!"

"Larxene!" Axel said, turning even more red, "Stop mentioning I have a crush on Roxas!"

"Why, are you afraid he'll hear from the other side of the lunch room?"  
"No!" Axel hissed, "I don't want rumors—starting..."

His heart stopped.

Right there, walking down the side of the lunchroom, was Roxas. He was walking away from them. Meaning he'd just walked _by_ them a few seconds ago...

Meaning that he'd heard everything.

"Whoops," Larxene said, flashing Axel an innocent grin.

Axel glared at her. She didn't look very remorseful at all.

"What?" Larxene asked, "_I _didn't announce that I had a crush on Roxas, did I? I was just teasing you about it, just like I always do—"

"Shut up."

Axel grabbed the rest of his lunch and got up. He could hear Larxene asking Demyx and Namine what Axel's problem was as he walked away. When he got to the cafeteria doors, he shoved them open, listening to them fall shut behind them with a loud, jarring, satisfying _SLAM_.

* * *

He'd forgotten that seniors had a special place outside until he walked into it, staring at seven tables' worth of people he vaguely recognized. All of the seats were occupied.

Axel walked across the walkway to the parking lot that was right next to the small area, and sat down on the curb. He really didn't feel like eating, but he pulled out his leftovers anyway; Reno had packed it for him that morning, since he couldn't get to sleep after work. He muttered something about a bad night, and didn't go into detail.

A bad night usually meant that something had happened that wasn't supposed to, and he had had to fix it.

Axel stared at the clouds. He knew, somehow, that something like that would happen. Embarrassing things always seemed to happen to him when he least wanted them to. He had wanted to tell Roxas himself—face to face. None of this 'he said she said' stuff.

Looks like it had happened that way, though...

Axel rammed half his sandwich down in one bite. He was probably going to get into another fight with Larxene about it later—

"Hey."

Mouth still full of sandwich, Axel looked up—and nearly choked on his food, when he saw Roxas staring down at him.

"Mind if I sit here?"

Axel shook his head, wide-eyed, and watched as Roxas joined him on the curb. He was holding some books, with a sandwich in a bag on top.

Axel swallowed, remembering painfully that he'd left his soda on the cafeteria table.

"So," Roxas said, looking over at Axel, "Why are you out here?"

"Um—well, um..." Axel started, feeling himself turning red. He took a breath; he _had_ to get over this...

"I got into a fight with Larxene," he finally said, meeting Roxas' eyes—which, he realized, were very close to the color that Namine had made them in her drawing. "She likes to fight about things. Even when there's nothing to fight about."

"Is that why she's yelling at people all the time?"

"Yeah," Axel said, "She's a very angry person."

"Sounds like what people say about you."

Axel's heart sank; so that's what this was about...confirming rumors. Still, he blundered on, consoling himself on the thought that it might not be the _only_ reason Roxas was talking to Axel...

"I…I've been through a lot," he said quietly, deciding on truth rather than try to make things nicer than they were, "Just like she has."

"Ah."

An awkward pause settled between them. Axel eyed the textbooks sitting in Roxas' lap.

"Multivariable Calculus," he read off the top one, trying desperately to ignore the knot of nervousness in his stomach.

"Huh? Oh," Roxas said, realizing what Axel was looking at, "That's for my AP Calc class."

"...Isn't that supposed to be one of the hardest classes in the school?"

"I guess," Roxas said, looking at the book's cover, "It's not that complicated, though."

"Really?"

"Well here," he opened the book to a page somewhere past the beginning, "Calculus is basically another way to get to the same results you can with algebra, just in a shorter amount of time and steps."

"Oh," Axel said, "So it's a bunch of shortcuts?"

"Kind of," Roxas said, "Here's an example. This is the algebra you would need to find this point on this graph..." he pointed to a long equation that took up most of the page on one side, and a graph on the top that looked like someone had sneezed while trying to draw a curved line, "and that's the derivation that you need to find that same value." He pointed to the right side of the page.

"Whoa..."

"It's pretty easy, once you get the concepts. You need to know the algebra first, though, 'cause you use it."

"Oh," Axel said, "Guess that counts me out."

Roxas shut the book again.

"How come?" he asked, looking at Axel.

Axel shrugged.

"I suck at math. Always have. I can memorize shit, but then they make you figure stuff out, like those word problems and stuff. I hate it."

"Funny," Roxas said, pulling his sandwich bag open, "That's the part I've always liked about math."

He laughed, a little.

"That's why I'm called a nerd, though."

"I would just call you smart," Axel heard himself saying. Then, when the embarrassment caught up with his brave comment, he shoved the last of his sandwich in his mouth, and started chewing.

"You're one of the few, then—what're you doing?"

Axel tried to swallow—but he didn't have any spit left, so everything had gotten stuck to the inside of his mouth. He tried again; nothing.

"Oh," Roxas said. He unscrewed the cap of his water bottle, and handed it to Axel. Muffled something that was supposed to be a 'thanks', Axel grabbed the bottle and started chugging. He finally stopped to breathe.  
"Wow," he heard Roxas say, "You must have been thirsty."

Axel looked at the water bottle—there was a little left in the bottom, but not much.

"Oops."

"It's just tap water," Roxas said, taking the bottle back as Axel handed it to him.

"Thanks."

"You looked like you needed it," Roxas said, screwing the cap back on. He put it back down beside him.

"So...what're you doing out here?" Axel asked. Roxas shrugged.

"I saw you walking out here. Then Hayner came over and started talking to Olette, so I left."

"Who's Olette?" Axel asked.

"Hayner's crush," Roxas said, "she still doesn't get it, so he's getting really obvious about it. It's gross to watch."

"Gross?" Axel asked, laughing despite himself. "Is he using baby talk, or something?"  
"He might, soon enough," Roxas said, rolling his eyes, "ever since you threw his lunch off the table, he's been an ass. I think you hurt his pride."

"...oh."

"He's a nice guy usually, but he has his moments. I don't think I could have watched much longer without just telling Olette right in front of him. I know he's shy."

"I had a friend like that," Axel said, suddenly remembering, "he had a crush on this one girl, and he talked to her all the time, but he could never bring himself to say anything."

He laughed at the memory.

"Poor Demyx."

Another moment passed in silence. Axel looked at the sky again, enjoying the slight breeze that was blowing by them, now.

"You're easy to talk to," Roxas said.

Axel's diaphragm stopped working for a split second. He looked over to see that Roxas was watching the sky, too. And smiling. Genuinely smiling.

Axel grinned.

"Why, thank you," he said, surprised at how suddenly confident he sounded.

Roxas laughed.

"You're welcome."

Axel's grin widened, feeling more than a little happy. Seems that Roxas didn't hear Axel when he'd walked by their table, after all…

They stayed like that until the bell rang. Then, another miraculous thing happened; after they had gotten off the curb, Roxas turned to him and said,  
"Let's do this tomorrow. If it's nice out, that is."

"Uh--yeah!" Axel exclaimed, after recovering from the initial shock of such a suggestion, "That would be fun."

Roxas then smiled awkwardly at him.

"See you then."

Axel watched him turn and go, frozen to where he stood on the concrete.

Had that just happened…?

* * *

A/N: Tee hee hee…


	8. Denial

A/N Allrighty! Let's see what Roxas is thinking!

Reviewer shout-out: xHanako,Girl on the Computer, ArianZephyr, Shikamarules1, Catwiskers10

Thank you!

Chapter Eight: Denial

* * *

Roxas walked to his next class after lunch feeling relieved; he didn't think that it would be that easy, to strike up conversation with Axel--then again, he didn't seem as nervous as he had before. That was a good sign…

Again, Roxas found himself zoning out in AP Biology--something he'd been doing ever since last Thursday, when Axel had threatened Hayner at lunch. He just couldn't shake that expression out of his mind, for some reason. He refused to think it was because Axel actually had a crush on him, like Sora and Kairi seemed to believe--even if he was like that, he couldn't like Roxas…it was just too impossible.

Roxas was boring. He studied all the time, and the few times he wasn't studying, the only thing close to interesting he ever did was ride his skateboard--and he didn't even do any tricks; he just stood on it and rolled down the street. He killed jokes like flies whenever he did get the chance to hang out with people, to the point where he annoyed most people--including Sora, sometimes. So how could Axel find him that interesting?

Kairi had said that crushes didn't make sense, sometimes. Roxas found that hard to believe; there was always a reason for something, even if that reason was so obscure and out of the blue that no one could have seen it coming. Crushes should be no different, right?

He'd never had one before that he could remember, so Roxas had to go on what he used for everything else in life--logical analysis.

It wasn't working too well.

That just meant he had to try harder--like those impossible extra credit problems on a hard test. Hence, his attempt at conversation at lunch. That, and he really was sick of listening to Hayner try to get Olette's attention, and his mind was already elsewhere. Pence had felt the same, but he was patient, and could withstand just about anything while still being pleasant. Roxas knew he personally was going to snap soon, if he didn't leave.

Pence knew this too, which meant that there were no questions asked when Roxas had gotten up from the lunch table. Pence had just smiled, and wished him luck in talking to Axel; he'd heard the stories.

"I hope you come back with all your limbs", he'd said.

Roxas thought of that again, when he'd found Axel outside; somewhere between the deer-in-headlights look and the food making his cheeks bulge, Axel had lost that side of him that everyone was scared of. Roxas found it interesting, more than frightening. As with everything else concerning Axel, the question of 'why' compelled Roxas to keep finding out more.

His main goal, he had decided when he'd sat down, was that he'd wanted to figure out why Axel seemed so different around Roxas. If he could just get Axel to relax around him--maybe even befriend him--eventually the truth would come out, and this whole confusion would be solved as a misunderstanding and stored away. On top of it, Roxas would have a new friend that wasn't obsessed about grades, or getting into the best school in the universe, or anything else Roxas was surrounded by. He was worried about college, too, but…he didn't break down into tears when he didn't get an 'A' in something…and he seemed to be the only one.

He had turned out to like talking to Axel more than he thought he would. Something had just clicked, and things just seemed…better, somehow. Different. More exciting.

The rest of his day paled in comparison.

Roxas had the ugly thought that that's what he got, for not making friends outside of study group buddies; he was fast becoming more of a social gimp than he already was to begin with.

He tried not to dwell on that too much, and instead started thinking about his biology paper he was going to have to turn in next week…

* * *

"Roxas!"

Roxas halted in the middle of the hallway, almost knocking a few people off their feet.

"Hey," he said, as Namine came running up to him. It was right before the last block of the day.

"Here!" Namine said, holding up her sketchbook.

Roxas stared back at his own image.

"You like it?" Namine asked, after a moment.

"I'm…that's _me_?"

"yeah!" Namine exclaimed. Her eyes were wide and bright; she looked excited.

"That's badass," Roxas said--he noticed he was smiling, "That's _awesome_!"

"Thanks! I'm glad I got the right shade of blue," she said, glancing at his eyes for a minute, and then down at the picture, "I was afraid they matched too well with your hair. But since they actually are that color, it works."

Roxas didn't ask what she meant by 'too well'.

"Is this for your portfolio?"

"Yeah," Namine said, still grinning, "I'm doing portraits of people. This is the second."

"Who's the first?"

Namine flipped the page of her sketchbook, and held it up again.

Immediately, Roxas was confronted with an Axel far more insane than he'd ever seen in person. Somehow, though, the image fit him perfectly.

"So _that's_ what Axel was talking about when he mentioned fire…"

"Huh?" Namine asked, adjusting her glasses.

"Oh," Roxas said, giving his head a shake, "I--it's kind of embarrassing, but I accidentally gave one of the tickets you had given me to Axel, before I knew he was actually_ in_ the band. He thought I was you at first, and he said something about coloring in a bunch of fire."

Namine's smile changed, as Roxas talked, from gleeful to warm.

"Yes," she said, looking down at her sketchbook, "This was it."

"That's…really amazing, though," Roxas said; he really was in awe over Namine's skills. He had been before, but she kept getting better...

"Thank you," Namine said. She shut her sketchbook. "You're probably going to be late for class, you know."

"Oh, yeah--I'll see you later, then--!"

Roxas dashed off, just as the bell rang.

* * *

"Sora, you've got to talk to her sometime," Roxas said, when Sora had slumped into his seat on the bus that afternoon.

"She hates me, I know it," Sora said glumly to the floor.

Roxas rolled his eyes; he didn't know how much more of _this_ he could take, either…first Hayner, then Sora had yet to make up with Kairi…they were getting closer to the one week mark--which was their record length of fight, so far.

"Sora, she's your girlfriend. You can't tell me it's that hard to just walk up to her and say something--"

"She _glares_ at me!" Sora said, turning his large blue eyes on Roxas, "It's scary!"

"I don't know how you think that's scary—"

"You can walk away from it!" Sora interrupted, "I'm her boyfriend! That glare haunts me!"

"Well it won't be anymore, if you don't do something about it," Roxas countered. He raised an eyebrow at his brother.

Sora kept his big blue eyes on him. Roxas was reminded of those toddler pictures Mom pulled out sometimes on the weekends.

"If she's really that 'mean'," Roxas continued, making air quotes, "you two still wouldn't be together. I don't need to have dated to know that--you have to stand each other somehow, right? Just like friends do?"

Sora stared at his sneakers. He knew Roxas had a point.

"Go be a man and talk to her, or something," Roxas said, smacking his twin's shoulder with the back of his hand. He only realized after he did it that that was the same motion their mother did when she was trying to motivate one of them to do something.

After another moment of staring sullenly at the floor, Sora sighed.

"I guess I'd better get off the bus, then, huh?"

Roxas nodded.

"That would be preferable. If you don't, I'm changing seats. You're depressing me."

Sora laughed weakly. Then, he shoved himself off his seat and ran down the aisle, obviously trying to instill some courage and energy into himself. He hopped the last couple steps and bolted to the front of the school.

Roxas would have kept watching, but the busses in front of them were already leaving. The bus driver shut the door and started off, and Sora got obscured by the trees surrounding the bus lanes.

* * *

Roxas had a boring ride to the bus stop, where he got off and walked a boring block home. He thought about Axel some more, and that picture Namine drew--it was really good. The portrait of him was too, but Axel's was more…startling. Original. Roxas' was more…normal fantasy stuff, he thought. Some guy with two swords. How often does one see that?

Roxas didn't really put any more thought into it, after he started his homework. He was particularly absorbed in a concept they were going over in AP Biology when he heard the front doorbell ring.

He put his books down and went to the front door.

Sora was standing on the top stair, frown on his face--and a rather splotchy right eye.

"She _punched_ me!" He exclaimed, completely indignant, "In the face!"

Roxas stood in the doorway for a moment, staring at his brother. Then he did as all brothers should do, when they find their sibling has been bruised by the person they admire.

He laughed.

Loudly.

Sora's exclamation of "It's not funny!" just made him laugh harder. He made a note to call Namine, when he'd calmed down--he wanted _all _the details on this one…

* * *

"It was very random," Namine said later, when Roxas had called, "he came running towards us, shouting that he was sorry and if they could make up yet. Kairi had just gotten a bad grade on a test and she really wasn't feeling well, so…Sora got it in the face."

Roxas snickered.

"You're a mean twin," Namine said calmly, "To be laughing at his pain."

"You think it's funny too," Roxas said, "I can hear it in your voice."

A pause.

"I didn't laugh _at _him, though," she pointed out, "There's a difference at finding it amusing and laughing at him."

"Fine, I'm mean," Roxas said, "It was still funny…."

Namine laughed.

"What?" Roxas asked, finding the small outburst a little out of place.

"I was right to put you in darkness," she said, "In the picture."

"You mean the background?" Roxas clarified.

"Yes," Namine said, "It's fitting."

"So you're saying I look good in front of dark purple?"

Namine laughed.

"Think abstract," she said, "I know it's a stretch for you, but think about it. If I had to give you an element, I think it would be night. Like in the picture."

"…Night's an element?"

"It's an element of nature," Namine said, "It works."

"…Oh."

"I'll talk to you later," Namine said, "I've got another sketch to do."

"All right," Roxas said, "I'll talk to you later, then."

"Tell me if you think of any other elements people you know could be."

"I doubt it, but if I think of anything, I'll tell you," Roxas said.

"Thank you."

_Click._

Roxas stared at the phone for a minute, bewildered.

Night…the first thing that came to Roxas' mind was Day, and with that came the thought of Sora as day.

"I _suppose_ it works," he said to himself, before going back inside the house.

* * *

"So," Axel said, eying his warped sandwich at lunch the next day, "What's this about Kairi hitting Sora in the face?"

"That's pretty much it," Roxas said, shrugging, "I told Sora to go and talk to Kairi, so he took that as, 'run up to Kairi shouting your apologies at the top of your lungs'. She didn't appreciate it."

Axel laughed.

"Ouch."

"You should have seen Sora when he came home," Roxas said, "His bruise was all nasty-looking."

"She must have gotten him good, then."

Roxas nodded. He noticed Axel was still eying his sandwich.

"Are you not hungry?"

"Huh?" Axel asked looking over at Roxas, eyes wide again. "Oh!" he said, when he realized what Roxas had asked. He looked at his sandwich again.

"I just don't know what's in it, that's all…"

"Did your mom make it, then?"

"My brother," Axel corrected, peeling the top slice of bread off, "Mom died right after I was born. Delivery complications. She bled to death, basically."

He frowned at the contents of the sandwich.

"…Oh," Roxas said. He felt very awkward. "Sorry."

Axel shrugged.

"Nothing to be sorry about--no one's fault, really."

Axel shoved the bread back on the sandwich, and took a huge bite.

Roxas swallowed. Now _he_ didn't feel like eating…that wasn't exactly lunch conversation...

"Aw, gross!"

Roxas looked over to see Axel grimacing as he swallowed.

"What?" Roxas asked.

"Reno put Chinese leftovers in the meatloaf again!"

Roxas' eyes widened, despite himself.

"What…kind of Chinese leftovers?" He asked, afraid of the answer.

"I don't know, but I taste soy sauce, and there's a couple pieces of broccoli stuck in my teeth."

"That…sounds extremely nasty."

"Yeah," Axel agreed. He eyed the sandwich again. "I can't buy anything though--we're out of spending money for the month."

"It's only the 15th though," Roxas said.

"Yeah, well," Axel said, his eyes narrowing, "Reno's an ass and won't let me work until I'm out of school. Good thing the band makes some extra money, otherwise we wouldn't be able to eat for the last week..."

"Do you guys live on your own, then?"

Axel nodded, chewing on another bite. He swallowed, and tried to wash it down with more soda--only to realize there wasn't any left in the can.

Roxas was already unscrewing the cap of his water bottle again.

"…thanks," Axel said, after chugging about half of it.

"What about your dad?" Roxas asked, faintly aware that it wasn't very polite to ask people he barely knew about family issues. Morbid curiosity overrode his vague sense of manners, and he eyed Axel as he swallowed and handed the bottle back to Roxas.

"You know that cliff at the beach?"

"Oh, you mean Dead Man's Cliff?" Roxas asked.

"Yep," Axel said, leaning back on his hands, "You know why it's called that, right?"

"…Does it have to do with your dad?" Roxas asked apprehensively; he had a feeling this story wasn't going to end well, either...

Axel was nodding.

"Yup. He was always drunk and never home, so we didn't think anything of it until we got a call the next morning. Apparently he had fallen off the edge and onto that big rock below. His brains weren't inside his head by the time the medics got there."

Roxas swallowed the last of his sandwich, very thankful he wasn't squeamish.

"That's why little kids go look for bloodstains on the rock," Axel said casually, "I've never been there, but I've heard of elementary schoolers doing it."

"I always wondered about that…I always thought it was some legend they knew, or something."

"It kind of is, now..."

Another awkward silence settled between them. Finally, Roxas took it upon himself to ease the atmosphere.

"I'm sorry about your parents. Both of them."

Axel shrugged.

"Shit happens. Just don't go telling everyone. Otherwise…"

He looked at Roxas. Roxas noticed his eyes were a very bright green--like the color of those lawns you only saw in fertilizer commercials. His expression was a softened version of that menacing glare he'd seen directed at Hayner. Still scary, but...not as much. His eyes weren't as narrowed, anyway...

"Well, I guess I don't have to threaten you with bodily harm," he said, his voice much quieter than it was before.

"I won't tell," Roxas said, still looking at Axel.

The bell rang, and the eye contact broke suddenly. They both gathered their things.

"Until tomorrow," Roxas said, before he left. Axel smiled at him. He looked a little too cheery, now.

"Yeah," he said, "Until then."

* * *

A/N: I apologize for the gore, if anyone's squeamish. That's about as bloody as it's going to get for the time being (I've written up to chapter 13). I'll warn if there's more--'cause Axel might like slasher films or something, lol.

Until next Wednesday!


	9. Advice

A/N: Namine time!

reviewer shout-out: Shikamarurules1 , Girl on the Computer, xHanako, 0Life-is-a-Song0, Catwiskers10,

Thank you all, as well as everyone who has favorited my chapters so far!

Chapter Nine: Advice

* * *

"Hello?"

"Hi, Axel," Namine said, putting the phone between her head and shoulder; she needed both hands to sketch.

"Oh," Axel said, "Hey."

"You sound preoccupied," she said.

"Yeah," Axel admitted, "you could say that."

"Is it Roxas? I know you've been eating lunch with him this week."

"Yeah," Axel said. Namine could tell he was grinning. "He's a lot like I thought he would be, actually."

"That's good for you, then," Namine said, "That means you read him right."

"And we don't have to worry about the concert Saturday," Axel said.

Namine laughed.

"I knew it would work."

"…Knew what would work?" Axel's voice went from dreamy to suspicious in a heartbeat.

"You didn't think it was an accident that I gave Roxas tickets, did you?" she asked.

"You--what?"

"You had to get over it sometime," Namine said, "I figured if you were cornered, things would progress. And they did."

"…I'd freak out, but that was too good of a plan."

"Yup."

"…you're good."

"Thank you."

Namine realized she was smiling; she hadn't heard Axel sound this happy in…forever, really.

"So he doesn't hate you for insulting his friend?"

"No," Axel said, "He agrees. And yesterday he said I'm easy to talk to. And today I just told him about how my parents died, it's kind of weird."

"That is weird," Namine agreed, "Usually you don't tell people that."

"You and Demyx are the only others that know," Axel said. "I don't know if it's good or bad that I'm just saying random personal shit around him."

"Well, I know he's not squeamish," Namine said, "So you didn't make him lose his appetite, or anything."

Axel laughed.

"Yeah, that wouldn't have been good."

A pause. Namine's pencil slowed down around Kairi's feet, as she decided to voice something that had been worrying her for a few days.

"Just...make sure you don't go too far without knowing if he feels the same."

"…You're not suggesting I make a move _now_, are you?" Axel asked, his tone wary.

"No," Namine said, "But if he isn't interested, that's not going to just slide off your back. You don't want to get to the point where you're confessing only to find out he's straight."

"...No, probably not…" Axel admitted.

"Just something to keep in mind," Namine said. She really didn't want to see him depressed, or hut--_again_….

"Don't set yourself up by not dealing with it. You'll hurt yourself that way."

"…You're really perceptive about this kind of thing," Axel said.

"Well," Namine said, "I've helped a lot of people. The only person I haven't helped was Kairi. She just kind of handled it on her own. We're the same like that. She'd handle a long distance relationship better than Sora. I think that's what's making her mad; Sora just fell apart at the mention of it, and she wanted to seriously talk about the possibility."

"Ah, so that's why Sora got punched in the face later."

"Did Roxas tell you that?"

"People were talking about it this morning," Axel said, "Roxas confirmed it."

"I see."

Axel yawned.

"So how do I find out if Roxas is gay or not?"

"You figure it out," Namine said, laughing, "He's your crush."

"What about helping me?"

"Nope."

"You're mean. And I'm bored. There's nothing to do around here…"

"You only get bored before concert weekends," Namine pointed out, "You just want it to be Saturday."

"I wouldn't mind having Roxas' number instead of it being Saturday," Axel said.

Namine knew he was grinning again.

"I'm not giving you his number, because that would be cheating."

"Aww. You're no fun."

"It would creep him out."

"...and?"

Namine shook her head.

"I've got to finish a sketch."

"For the portfolio?"

"Yeah," she sad.

"Who is it this time?"

"Kairi."

"Are you drawing her fighting?"

"Not really. You'd have to see it."

"Is she an element?"

"Yeah," Namine said, "She's very dependable. Always there, always forgiving, but formidable when crossed. So she's earth."

"Wow...Wait—Earth's an element?"  
"It's an element of nature, right?"

"Huh," Axel said, "Yeah, it is."

"Anyway, I'm about to color," she said, "I'm going to need to get off the phone for this. I need my lamps in the garage."  
"All right, I'll talk to you tomorrow, then."

"Okay. Don't get too bored."

"I won't."

_Click._

Namine looked at her drawing of Kairi. The more she thought about it, the more Kairi seemed like that steady rock in everyone's life that they could all count on. Namine remembered when they were little; she was the one that talked to everyone. Namine was too shy back then.

She started coloring the sky, minus clouds. It was a bit easier that way…

* * *

Mr. Marl scrutinized the Roxas drawing Wednesday for a long moment.

"Are you still doing elements?" he asked, eyes flickering in Namine's direction, before turning back to the sketch in front of him.

"He's night," Namine said.  
"Night," Mr. Marl repeated, "That is interesting….very interesting…what's next?"

He turned the page in her sketchbook.

"Earth," she said.

"Aha," Mr. Marl said. "This is your sister?"

"Yes."

"This is an interesting take," he said, "More brown, I think. And make the background a little less lopsided, if you can. It looks sloppy."

"Right."

* * *

After school that day, Kairi looked happier than she had the past couple days.

"Did you make up with Sora?" Namine asked, knowing what the answer was.

Kairi smiled.

"Yeah," she said, "I can't really stay mad at him for too long. He kept apologizing every chance he could today, so I finally just forgave him."

She sighed.  
"I guess I'm a sucker for that kind of thing."

"What, apologies from boyfriends?" Namine asked, as they started walking home.

"Apologies from Sora," Kairi said. "I never forgave anyone else before a week was up, at least..."

Namine laughed; it was very true.

"Still, I am worried. I guess I should just wait to see what happens, with the whole college thing, right?"

"Get into one first," Namine agreed, "Then talk about Sora."

Kairi nodded.

"I don't know why I didn't think of that first…It probably would have made life easier..."

"Probably," Namine agreed.

* * *

"All right guys," Axel walked into the garage, that evening, "This is our last practice before Saturday, so let's just do a run-through of everything in order and call it good, all right?"

"You sound different," Demyx said, "You're not all bummed out anymore."

"Because he's talking to lover-boy, that's why," Larxene laughed, "Have you asked him out yet?"

"FIRST song!" Axel said, ignoring Larxene, "I'm going to count off, now…"

Everything went smoothly after that; Namine was pleased with her work with the synthesizers, and Larxene didn't seem to be drowning her out today. Even better, Axel was pretty much himself again. This concert was really going to be a good one.

And that last song…

She hoped her suspicions about Roxas were true. She was usually very good with judging that kind of thing, but Roxas hadn't said a peep to the effect that he was gay, so there was really no telling…

By the time practice was over, she was lost in thoughts about what color combination would be good for Kairi's hair, in her picture…

* * *

She was very surprised, later that evening, when she got a call from Roxas.

"Hello," she said. "You're on speakerphone, by the way. I'm coloring."

"Oh…okay."

"You sound confused," Namine said.

"I'm sorry if I'm bothering you so late, but…I need to ask you something. I kinda want to know by tomorrow..."

Namine stopped coloring. Was this about...?

"Go ahead."

Roxas didn't respond right away. Namine took a stab at the problem, hoping she wasn't going to make things awkward…

"Is this about Axel?"

"…Yeah. Kairi told me that he's—well..."

"Gay?"

"Yeah, that…I just wanted to confirm it, I guess…."

Namine looked at the phone. She could almost see Roxas' lost expression.

"You don't know what to do, do you?"

"Well I mean, it's not bad or anything, it's not like I'm against that kind of thing, it's just…that whole awkward thing he was doing…earlier…"

"You suspect he likes you?"

Roxas didn't say anything. Namine took that as a yes.

She set her pencil down, and opened her phone.

"You're not on speaker phone anymore, by the way."

"Okay. Are you about to tell me something?"

"No."

"...Oh."

"However," Namine said, "I'll tell you what not to do."

"What would that be?"

Namine sighed.

"Don't be insensitive. I know you can be abrupt sometimes, but if you're going to be harsh, don't insult him. He's got a reputation as being scary for a reason."

A silence.

"Axel doesn't trust very easily," Namine continued, "However, he trusts you even though he doesn't know you that well. I'm not saying that you should treat him like a child or make allowances for him, but...don't be too mean."

"...So—does this mean he actually, really likes me in that non-platonic, romantic way? Like the valentine's day kind of like?"

Namine smiled. Roxas really could be dense, sometimes.

"Well, there's only one way to find out, isn't there?"

"Ask him? That'd be awkward, though," Roxas said, "I mean, I've only known him for a little over a week. That would be weird."

"Given the circumstances…do you really think so?"

Again, no response.

"Think about it," she said, "Even if you think it will push him further away, it's better to know how he feels, right?"

"I…guess…"

"It's up to you. Anything else you wanted to ask?"

"N--no, that's it…"

"All right. I'll talk to you later, then."

"Yeah, see you. Thanks."

"Anytime."

_Click_.

Namine stared at the phone for a moment. This really was developing quickly; before school started, they didn't even know each other. Now…

She hoped she was watching something good unfold.

* * *

"What do you think they're talking about out there?

It was Thursday, at lunch. Demyx was looking over his shoulder at the door to the Senior area.

"It's hard to say," Namine said, "Can we predict what we're going to talk about when we come here?"  
"Yeah, true."

"It's boring without him here."

Demyx and Namine looked at Larxene. She was frowning at her fries.

"No offense, but you guys aren't all that exciting."

"I am too exciting!" Demyx countered, obviously offended.

Larxene looked up at him.

"Not Axel exciting."

"…oh." Demyx's shoulders slumped, "Yeah."

"I need a smoke. You coming?"

Demyx glanced at Namine. She was already pulling out her sketchbook.

"Go on," she said, "I've got things to work on."

Demyx looked from Larxene to Namine, and back again.

"You sure?"

Namine was flipping to the page that had Kairi on it.

"I'm sure."

Demyx got up and left.

It didn't take long for Namine to get absorbed into the sand surrounding Kairi's feet, carefully outlining her pencil marks in solid black…

She was reminded of her first year here, as a freshmen. She used to do this every lunch period, before she had someone to talk to. She smiled at the memory; times certainly did change…

* * *

A/N: Up next: Awkward AxelRoxas conversation! Yaay!


	10. Forced Confession

A/N: Development! =O

Reviewer Shout-out: Catwiskers10, 0life-is-a-song0, xHanako, akuroku fan on fire, LaChipMix, Sora-Chan14, ArianZephyr

You guys are awesome!

* * *

Chapter ten: Forced Confession

"So which one of you is older—you, or Sora?"

"Sora," Roxas said. It was Thursday. They were sitting on the curb again, just as they had been doing for the past week. Axel's nervousness had dwindled to a dull knot in his stomach over that time, and he almost felt like himself again. The anticipation of concert night that weekend seemed to help, too.

"Seriously?"

Roxas shrugged. He had some assignment spread out on his lap, and was working problems with his right hand while eating with his left.

"I act older. He is older."

"Huh."

Axel found himself staring at the calculations Roxas was scribbling out on his notebook paper, almost effortlessly.

"...What are you doing?"

"Biology" Roxas replied, "It's easy, but I forgot the homework was due today."

"And you have it next period?" Axel asked.

"Yup."

Axel found himself leaning over, trying to figure out what on earth Roxas was writing...

"Are those...really big punnett squares?"

"Yeah," Roxas said, looking up—

Which made his face very close to Axel's.

"Whoa," he said, leaning back a little. He didn't seem fazed in any way; just mildly surprised.

Axel abruptly straightened, and cleared his throat.

"Sorry. You write small."

Roxas was looking at him oddly again.

"Why are you blushing—?"

"No reason!" Axel exclaimed, a little more loudly than he meant to. When Roxas didn't respond, he looked away and shoved more sandwich in his mouth. Stupid light skin—! He hated being pale...

"If there were no reason, it wouldn't have happened, right?"

Axel kept his eyes on the pavement as he chewed and swallowed. _Shit!_  
He heard Roxas shuffling papers. Eventually curiosity got the better of him, and he looked over to see Roxas putting his homework away.

"...Where are you going?"

Roxas stood, stack of binders in hand.

"I want to ask you something. Not here, though."

Axel stared at him a minute.

"What does that mean?"

Roxas' blue eyes flicked to the tables full of their classmates.

"That's what I wanted to ask you."

Axel shoved the rest of his sandwich into its bag, grabbed his empty soda can and stood, feeling suspended between anticipation and extreme confusion. It made him feel sick again.

"...Where to?" He managed to ask, swallowing the knot of nervousness that was constricting his throat...

* * *

They ended up walking around the wing that helped enclose the courtyard to the other side, where there was a small wooden Gazebo in the middle of a patch of grass. The wood shop class had made it about a decade ago, as a senior project. No one was inside.

Axel stepped in after Roxas, his mind racing. What did Roxas want to tell Axel that he didn't want anyone else hearing—or seeing that well from outside the Gazebo? Possibilities were running through his head as fast as he was capable of thinking. He stopped in the doorway, and probably couldn't have stepped all the way in if he tried; his body seemed to have frozen over...

Roxas set his binders down on the wooden bench that was built into the wall of the Gazebo, lining its perimeter. He faced Axel.

"Why are you acting weird around me?"

Axel stared back at Roxas, willing his body to cooperate with him and formulate an answer. Nothing came.

"You blush, you stutter, you say weird things, and... you only do it around me. You're completely different around everyone else, but then I show up and you fall apart."

Axel gripped the edges of the doorway, waiting for the verdict that he knew was coming. Suddenly and quickly, the moment of truth had come. Axel willed his newly formed nausea to lessen, to no avail.

Roxas crossed his arms.

"I just don't _get_ it."

His tone was earnest, as though he were thoroughly confused—

Wait a minute.

He really _was_ confused. Axel realized with a cold shock that Roxas really, truly didn't see Axel's actions as signs of Axel liking him.

Was he really that dense?

Axel's grip on the doorway relaxed. So he wasn't going to reject him, or anything...he just thought something was wrong with Axel. Axel's stomach relaxed; he could deal with being thought of as a freak—that was territory he was used to being placed in.

Not that it made explaining himself any easier...

Axel cleared his throat. Roxas kept looking at him, waiting.

"Well, um," Axel forced out, shoving his hands in his pockets again, "It's...really not that complicated."

A silence.

"....that's it?" Roxas asked.

"Well, no, but...it's kind of hard to say."

He looked down, feeling his face flush again. Again, he hated being pale.

"If you were a girl, I would think you liked me."

Axel's hands clenched.

"Doesn't matter to some of us," he said to the floor, "Whether it's a girl or boy."

Immediately after he said it, his body relaxed. The process had started; there was no hiding anymore.

"...Seriously?"

Axel looked up, startled by the comment. Roxas looked...somewhere between confused and completely floored. More of the latter than the former.

"Yeah," Axel said evenly, not quite sure how to respond, "Seriously. I like you. Is it that hard to get?"

"Well no, but..." Roxas looked away. "Just...surprising, that's all."

Axel had the thought that maybe he should have seen this coming; this _was_ the kid that had never gone on a date ever.

"...Why?"

This wasn't going how Axel ever could have predicted, he knew that much.

"Sorry," Roxas was saying, "I just...I'm not good with this kind of thing. It's...kind of never happened to me before."

Roxas stared out of one of the openings in the Gazebo as he spoke, looking out at the school.

"I never thought it _would _happen, either," Roxas said in a quiet voice.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Axel asked.

Roxas shrugged.

"I never thought...someone would think of me like that."

Axel rolled his eyes. This was too much. The silliness of the comment overrode Axel's last shreds of apprehension.

"Why, because you're not cool enough, or something?" He asked, the sarcasm evident in his voice.

Roxas frowned.

"No," he said, turning to glare at Axel, "I'm not that dumb—"

"Then why? You're completely functional, it's not like you're missing a leg, or something—and even then, some people get turned on by that kind of thing, so you never know—"

"_What?"_

"I'm serious! This guy I knew, he had a thing for girls in wheelchairs—"

"What does this have to do with me?"

"I'm just saying!" Axel exclaimed, "Just 'cause no one's ever liked you before doesn't mean it's never going to happen!"

"So _why_?"

Axel found himself being stared down by Roxas' very blue eyes. He was trying to decide whether he should be scared or not when Roxas broke his sudden daze.

"Why do you like me? There's got to be something, right?"

Axel opened his mouth...but nothing came. He knew there were plenty of reasons floating around in his brain, but they just weren't volunteering themselves.

He crossed his arms.

"You're not making this easy."

Roxas raised an eyebrow.

"It's part of my charm," he said flatly.

"Oh."

Roxas turned, and picked up his binders.

"I'm going to class."

"Why?"

"The bell rang?" Roxas said, giving Axel a strange look, "You didn't hear it?"

"N—no...."  
Roxas shook his head, and walked out of the Gazebo.

"Wait!" Axel exclaimed, following him.

"What?" Roxas asked, without stopping.

"Are we eating lunch together tomorrow?"

"No."

"Why—?"

"I'll see you later," Roxas interrupted, before disappearing through a door in the side of the school building; it was a shortcut to the main hall.

Axel watched it close, helpless to the depression that was swiftly settling in his mind.

* * *

"Hey, Namine."

Axel was leaning against the railing of the boardwalk next to the beach, a good ten minutes from Twilight Town proper. He'd skipped his last two classes and walked there, after deciding that he wouldn't be able to focus anyway. It didn't happen very often, but...here he was, staring at the beach spread out below him, watching as the waves glinted in the afternoon sun as he listened for Namine's response. She was in art class; her teacher really didn't care if she was talking while working.

"Hi. Skipping again?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

Axel reiterated his lunch conversation to her, while she listened silently.

"...and then he walked off," he ended. It seemed a lot shorter now that he was just narrating it.

"You know," Namine said, "that's actually not bad."

"He's not eating lunch with me anymore!" Axel said, "How's that not bad?"

"He didn't tell you to never speak to him again, did he?"

"...no..."

"He's tolerating you."

"That doesn't help me."

"It does if you want to get to know him better."

"oh," Axel said, slumping over the railing he was leaning against.

"He's very smart, but that's all most people know. That's obviously not all you see in him, though, so that fact alone probably threw him for a loop."

"Yeah," Axel said with a dull laugh, "He doesn't think very much of himself."

"He can't see himself as attractive," Namine said, "So he doesn't know how anyone else could. He's been like that for as long as I've known him."

"Oh. That's...depressing."

Namine laughed.

"That's Roxas."

"Ugh..."

Axel let his head fall onto the railing; this was going to be interesting, to say the least...

"Is school almost out?"

"Almost."

"...Wanna come to the beach?"  
"Is that where you are?"  
"Yeah. It's nice out here."

"I've got to finish my drawings. I'm still working on Kairi."

"...Oh."

"Besides, some time alone would be good for you."

"I suppose..."

"I've got to go. Don't get home late."

"Ok..."

Axel pressed the 'end' button, and shoved his cellphone back into his tight jeans pocket. The breeze blew from the ocean, filling his lungs with crisp, salty air. He sighed; he should have expected something like this.

"_Maybe you like him because you admire him."_

"_No...More like…I know there's more to him. And I want to find out, but…there's no way I can…"_

Axel stood, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets again and made his long way back home, watching as the sun slowly started to bathe the world in warm orange light.

Is that what Roxas wanted to know...?

* * *

A/N: Hmmm, contemplation.

Next Week: Let's see how Roxas is doing! :D


	11. Caught

A/N Roxas time! It's a double-long chapter this week!

Reviewer shout-out: Mel's Merleawe , xHanako, Catwiskers10, Nekotsubasa, 0Life-is-a-song0, ArianZephyr

Thank you all! :)

Title: Caught

* * *

Roxas was staring at the back of the seat in front of him, his mind replaying Axel's words over and over again, trying to make sense of them...

"Roxas?" Sora's voice floated into Roxas' mind from what seemed like miles away. He blinked; there was a hand waving in front of his face.

"Roxas!"

"He likes me."

The hand stopped moving.

"Who?"

"Axel," Roxas replied, in a monotone. He turned to his brother, who looked about as surprised as Roxas felt.

"Seriously?"

"Yes. Seriously. He told me today. At lunch."

"So Kairi was right?"

Roxas nodded.

"...Whoa."

They stared at each other, being shocked. Roxas broke the silence first.

"So what do I do about it?"

Sora shrugged.

"I don't know. I've never had a guy tell me they had a crush on me."

"Kairi asked you out."

"Well yeah, but...Kairi's a girl."

"So?"

"So...does it work the same?"

"I'm asking you!" Roxas snapped. Sora flinched.

"I don't know!"

Roxas crossed his arms.

"Some help you are."

Sora didn't say anything to that. For the rest of the bus ride Roxas stared out the window, even more confused than he was before...

What did all this mean? A part of him was angry at Axel for giving him a headache. Then again, he _had_ asked Axel what his problem was. What he said, though, had been the last thing Roxas would have wanted as a response...

* * *

"I can't tell you what to do, you know."

Roxas stared at his cellphone; he'd put Namine on speakerphone so that he could fill out his calculus worksheets while talking to her.

"I haven't even said 'hi' yet."

"Axel told me what happened."

"...oh."  
"Anyway," Namine continued; she sounded preoccupied. "I figured you would call me."

Roxas put his pen down; he couldn't focus. Go figure. More obscenities directed at Axel ran through his head as he rubbed his forehead; it was hurting...

"So...what do I do about it?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Namine's pleasant voice floated up from the phone.

"Well I can't just act the same around him, can I?"

"Why not?"

"Because he just made it complicated!" Roxas burst out, no longer able to hold his frustration in, "I can't be friendly because then it'll seem like I'm fine with it!"

"Are you not fine with it, then?"

"No!" Roxas snapped, "I mean, it's okay being like that, but he's not exactly what comes to mind when I think of potential date! How the hell is he even that skinny—?!"

"So what _does_ come to mind?"

"I don't know, someone smarter—?"  
"Girl or boy?"

Roxas directed a glare at the phone.

"Funny. Really funny."

"I'm just asking." Namine said, "Humor me and answer."

"Is this _really_ the point here—?"  
"Does that mean boy?"

Roxas paused; he really didn't want to answer this, it was none of her business—

"I didn't know you were gay, Roxas, " Namine said, sounding amused.

Roxas glared at the phone again.

"...hello?" Namine asked. Finally, Roxas relented.

"I haven't told anyone," he answered grudgingly.

"Why not?"

"I just don't want to."

"That makes sense."

"Was that sarcasm?" Roxas snapped.

Namine laughed.

"It could have been. But it wasn't."

"Good—and don't tell anyone, either, especially Axel."

"I won't say anything," Namine said, "Just remember what I said earlier about being mean."

"I'll try," Roxas said, "Only because you asked me to."

"Good."

There was a brief silence in which Roxas tried to read and work his first calculus problem, to no avail.

"So you feel like you're backed into a corner, because Axel told you he liked you, and you have to react?"

Roxas sighed and set his pen down; he would have to do one thing at a time, this evening—which just aggravated him more...

"If I keep being friendly to him, he's going to be led on. If I tell him to go away and never speak to me again, he's probably going to start cutting himself, or something. I'm trapped."

"You could just tell him you're not interested."

"...Somehow, I don't think that will work."

"It wouldn't hurt to try," Namine offered.

"And what if it doesn't work?"

To Roxas' surprise, Namine laughed again.

"Then think of something then. Take it one step at a time. Just relax."

"I'm fine," Roxas said, frowning at the phone, "do I sound stressed?"

"You have a headache. I can hear it from here."

"....oh. Good to know I'm that readable."

"Of course," Namine said. "Go get some painkillers before you start snapping at Sora. I remember sophomore year."

"When I made him cry before my first math test?"

"You've probably already bitten his head off enough times this evening."

"He makes it too easy."

"That doesn't mean you should do it," Namine said, "But I've told you that before."

"Yeah," Roxas said, nodding, "you have."

Namine laughed again. Roxas shook his head; he'd ask what she found funny, but she probably wouldn't tell him, anyway.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she said.

"Yeah, bye."

Roxas pressed the 'off' button. He really needed some air...

* * *

Twenty minutes later Roxas was coasting around the neighborhood on his skateboard, trying to get his buzzing mind to slow down before it got too late to finish his homework.

He guessed the main thing was the fact that he was even in this situation to begin with; that Axel even had a crush on him was enough on its own to give Roxas a headache. He was starting to see now what Kairi was saying, about crushes not making sense. There was still a part of his mind that wanted to find out the reason, but for the most part he'd given up. He had decided, while coasting through the rolling streets of his neighborhood, that the workings of Axel would just have to remain a mystery. He had bigger issues on his hands, now.

Like how he was going to let Axel down gently...

Roxas didn't even pay attention to where he was going—something that only happened when he was very deep in thought. His subconscious drove for him, taking a turn here, coasting down the hill, taking another turn...

When he'd thought through a couple plans he could use and finally tried to figure out where he was, Roxas realized he didn't recognize anything.

He tried looking for signs of familiarity as he whizzed by intersections, reading only foreign street names on the signs—

BEEEEEEEEEP!

He barely had time to register what was coming towards him before he hit it, tires screaming as the driver slammed on the breaks—

Roxas slammed into the pavement on his side and rolled more times than his dulled senses could count; all he was thinking about was how shock was riddling his system, making him feel like nothing more than a piece of wet paper.

He realized he'd stopped at some point; the pavement was staying in the same spot...

"Hey! Are you all right?"

Roxas gingerly pushed himself up, more quickly than he should have—he was suddenly riddled with pain, and his head felt like it was going to explode—

"Ech," he coughed, "Shit..."

"I'd say so," the same voice said; whoever it was, they sounded torn between anger and concern, "What the hell were you doing skating in the middle of the street? Were you _trying_ to get run over? I nearly killed you!"

Roxas managed to situate himself upright while the man was talking. His vision cleared enough for him to realize that the guy was kneeling in front of him now.

"Yeah, you're bleeding," he was saying, "you need some cleaning up."

Vivid green eyes combed over Roxas, checking for any other injuries. His hair was fire-engine red, and pulled back into a ponytail.

"I am?"

"Uh huh. You need bandages."

"Oh...."

"Anything broken?"

Roxas shook his head slightly; any more than that, and he probably would have gotten sick...

"I don't know..."

The man stood again, holding his hand out to Roxas.

"Can you stand?"

Roxas braced himself and pushed himself off the ground, without the man's help. To his surprise he stood upright. And he wasn't nauseous.

"Well that's a good sign," the man said, "Good thing I saw you, otherwise it would have been over..."

"Sorry," Roxas said, watching as the man retrieved Roxas' skateboard—which was miraculously intact—from next to his car.

He put it under his arm.

"_I_ ran into _you_, and you're apologizing for making me panic?" His eyes narrowed as he looked at Roxas again. "Are you new here?"

"No, I got lost."

"Lost? What neighborhood do you live in?"

"Sunset Drive," Roxas replied.

The man raised his eyebrows; it was then Roxas noticed he had wedge-shaped marks on his cheekbones, right under the outer corners of his eyes. They were a dark red—like a really weird birthmark...

"It takes about ten minutes to get from here to Sunset Drive," he said, "that's a hell of a long way to skate."

Roxas gave his head another shake.

"Wow..."

"You know, that blood's making you look worse," the man said, walking over to stand in front of Roxas again. He was very tall.

"I've got a first aid kit at home, if you didn't mind coming to a stranger's house. I promise I don't bite."

He grinned; Roxas was immediately reminded of Axel—a thought which, as soon as he had it, Roxas chased away again. That was the last person he needed to think about...

"Sure," Roxas muttered, "If you tell me how to get home again."

"How about I just drive you?"

Slowly, Roxas nodded.

"That sounds good..."

"All right," the man said. He then walked over to his car, which was still idling in the middle of the street, and opened the passenger side.

"Hop in."

* * *

Just as Roxas had gotten situated they were already pulling into a small driveway and stopping to let the garage door open all the way. The man's house was part of a cramped subdivision in which everything looked the same. The only thing making this house different from the ones next to it were the colors—the man's house was completely white.

The garage door had opened and the man was pulling into a very narrow space, carved out from mountains of...musical equipment.

"Geez," the man was saying, "Every time I come home, I'm afraid I'm going to run over something."

Roxas would have asked what all of it was for, but his head starting to hurt again. He managed to get out of the car and into the house, where he was directed to a piano bench—in front of the grand piano that took most of the space in the small living room.

"Sit tight, I'm going to get that kit. And try not to bleed on the piano, otherwise my brother's going to eat me alive."

"O...kay..."

Roxas fought the urge to take a look at his surroundings, and instead put both his hands over the cut across his temple. No wonder the man said he looked bad; he probably had blood all over his face...

After a few moments of silence, Roxas heard loud footsteps stumbling down the stairs, and someone shouting,  
"Hey, Reno! Did Rude say he was coming to the concert yet—?"

The footsteps halted.

"...R—Roxas?"

Roxas looked up—and found himself staring at Axel, frozen at the bottom of the stairs, eyes fixed on Roxas' head.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"I got hit by a car," Roxas said, settling in his infinite wisdom on the answer that was the most straightforward and blunt.

Axel's eyes bugged.

"_What?!"_

"What's that look for, Axel? Quit scaring him!"

They both turned to see the man—whose name was apparently Reno—come through a doorway in the back of the living room, holding a first aid kit and a wet washcloth.

"Okay," he said, setting the kit on the piano bench behind Roxas, "Axel, get me the chair from the garage."

"Please tell me _you_ didn't run into Roxas," Axel said weakly, turning his concerned expression to his older brother.

"If that's his name, then yes," Reno said, gently pulling Roxas' hand away from his temple and dabbing it with the washcloth. Roxas stayed still; Reno seemed like he knew what he was doing.

"He was skateboarding in the middle of the road and I didn't stop completely in time."

"WHAT?!" Axel yelped, "Why didn't you take him to the emergency room?!"

"'Cause he doesn't have a concussion and he didn't break anything, he's just in shock" Reno said calmly, "Now get me that chair—"

"How would _you_ know if he was fine—?!"

"Axel!" Reno snapped, his voice suddenly harsh and commanding, "You know damn well I've been trained for this! Now get me that chair!"

Axel didn't need to be told twice; reluctantly, he shoved the garage door open and pulled a folding chair from a spot just outside the door frame, and brought it back.

"Does this even hurt?" Reno asked, still dabbing as he sat down, "This thing's deep..."

"It's starting to hurt," Roxas said, "I think I'm still in shock, or whatever."

"Are you _sure_ he doesn't need to go to the hospital?" Axel asked. He had his arms crossed, effectively making him look like a worried mom.

"He doesn't have a concussion," Reno replied, his tone calm again.

"People still talk after they've had a concussion!"  
"Axel, I'm fine," Roxas said dully, "I'm just bleeding."

"What he said," Reno added, pressing the washcloth against the wound, "Hold that there."

Roxas pressed his hand against it. He heard the first aid kit being opened behind him, and stuff being shuffled through. Axel watched what Reno was doing.

"This is going to sting a little," Reno said. Roxas braced himself—

"_Ow_!" he exclaimed, as Reno pressed the cotton ball to his temple; he held Roxas in place with a strong, firm grip on Roxas' shoulder.

"Shit—!" Roxas hissed; his temple felt like it was on fire.

"Are you sure it's okay—?'  
"Shut _up_, Axel!" Roxas snapped, "Just—stop talking!"

To his surprise Axel complied.

"Okay," Roxas heard Reno saying, after a few more agonizing moments, "that should do it."

Reno bandaged the cut in silence; Roxas kept his eyes closed, trying to will the pain to go down. He felt a couple of future bruises on his sides and legs...

"All right, that should do you for now," Reno said when he was done. Roxas opened his eyes again. Axel was still standing there, hands now in his pockets, watching Roxas and Reno silently.

"Thanks," Roxas said, turning to Reno. Reno smiled.

"Sure," he said, "Just don't make a habit of it. I can't guarantee the next guy's going to be watching the road."

"I won't."

Reno closet the kit again, and stood.

"Well, that's that," he said, "I'll go put this back and take you home, all right? Unless you wanted to stay a little bit?"

He looked from Axel to Roxas. Roxas shook his head—the shock seemed to be gone now, leaving him feeling shaken and sore.

"I've got homework to do," he said, "Thanks, though."

Reno nodded, and left the room. Roxas noticed Axel was still watching him.

"What?" he asked.

"I didn't know you skated," Axel said lightly.

Roxas shoved the question of why Axel was asking this, and regurgitated out his usual response to that question.

"Only sometimes. I don't do any tricks, or anything."

"So you just...stand on it and roll?"

"Yeah," Roxas said, "it helps me think."

"Oh."

Roxas looked to the piano he was sitting at.

"Why do you have a piano in your living room?"

"Family heirloom," Axel said. He finally moved from his spot and walked around to the other side of the bench, where he sat down.

"It was my mom's."

"...oh."

"I do most of my songwriting here."

It was then that Roxas noticed the sloppy piles of papers stacked on top of the piano.

"I didn't know you wrote songs."

"Someone has to," Axel said, "I've tried to get Namine to write some, but she never wants to."

"...So you write _all_ the songs for your band, then?"

Axel nodded.

"Pretty much."

A silence fell over them. Roxas stared at the mess of papers absently, thinking...

"You know," Axel said hesitantly. Roxas turned to him, pulling himself from his thoughts. Axel was staring at the key cover of the piano, absently running his long, thin fingers over it.

"I didn't mean to scare you, with all that...today."

"You didn't scare me," Roxas said. "You just...put me on the spot."

"You asked, though."

"I know," Roxas said, "I just..."

"didn't think I'd say that," Axel finished. Roxas saw he was smiling slightly.

And for a split second, Roxas had the thought that maybe—just maybe—Axel wasn't as crazy as he thought.

Roxas looked away again, and focused on the piano's key covering.

"It's been so long since I've been in front of a piano," he spat out; it was the first thought that came to mind.

"You used to play?"

"I took lessons."

"I _wish_ I could have," Axel said, pushing the key cover back, "I only know how to push the keys."

He demonstrated by pushing two random keys with his index fingers. He grimaced.

"Yuck. That didn't sound good."

Despite himself, Roxas laughed a little.

"That's 'cause you're not doing it in the right key."

He reached over and pressed the keys to the right of the ones Axel had pushed. The two notes harmonized.

"If you want to do a fourth using this note," he tapped the lower one, "You've got to go a half-step lower up here." He pressed the black key next to the one Axel had pressed.

He looked at Axel. Axel was staring at the keys, frowning.

"A fourth?" he asked. He looked at Roxas again, confused.

"You don't know any music theory?"

Axel shook his head.

"I just know what sounds good. Kinda."

"Oh." Roxas looked at the piano again. He remembered how eager he had been to go to the studio he took lessons at, because then he could actually practice. It was ironic that Axel had such a well-made piano—because it was very well made, Roxas saw—right there in his home, and he didn't even know how to use it properly. That was probably why there was so much junk on top of it...

"Scoot over."

Axel complied, perching himself on the very edge of the bench. Roxas scooted to the center, his eyes immediately focusing on middle C.

"The first thing you should know about music theory is that it's a lot like math," he found himself saying, echoing the words of his old music teacher, "and that the notes on a piano are like points on a line. Each point is a certain distance away from every other point."

He pressed middle C and the note next to it. He felt Axel's eyes on him, watching closely. He shoved the sudden awkwardness he felt out of his mind by talking some more.

"So these two notes are a half-step away from each other. That's the smallest unit on the piano scale."

"Like inches, or something?"  
"Yeah," Roxas said, keeping his eyes on the piano keys in front of him, "You can think of it in inches. A half-step is an eighth of an inch, and then a whole step is a quarter of an inch away from C."

"C?"  
"The name of the note," Roxas said, pressing middle C again, "Every note has a letter name."

"_Ooohh_...."

Roxas found himself laughing.

"Wow," he said, "All this time and you didn't even know that?"

He finally looked up at Axel. Now that he thought about it, he didn't know why he was avoiding looking at him...

"How can you write songs without knowing how to write them down?"

"I just think of it," Axel said, turning his head towards Roxas, "I hear it in my head—"

Their faces were inches apart. Again—but Roxas didn't look away immediately, this time. Dully, he wondered why...

"Ah-HEM!"

Roxas and Axel both jumped, and turned simultaneously to see Reno standing behind them. He was grinning.

"Hehe!" he said, looking from one to the other, "I made you both jump!"

"Reno!" Axel snapped, "What was that for?!"

"Aren't I supposed to be taking you home, or something?" Reno asked, turning to Roxas—and completely avoiding the question.

"You didn't answer me—!" Axel protested, but Roxas cut him off; he'd rather not know why, even though he had a good idea of what the answer was.

"Yeah," He said, getting up,"Thanks—"  
"Or did you want to stay a little longer?"

Roxas shook his head; it hurt slightly, but he wasn't feeling dizzy anymore. Just sore...

"I'm fine," he said, "I've got studying to do anyway. Thanks for the bandage, Mr. Hartworth."

"That's Reno to you," Reno said, "I'm just Axel's older brother."

"Right," Roxas said, making a mental note to not be formal over here. If he ever set foot here again, that was...which he doubted. Right now, he felt like running away and never coming back.

Reno pulled his keys out of his pocket.

"Come on, kid," He said, "Let's get you home."

"Can I come?" Axel asked.

"_You_ need to figure out dinner," Reno said. Axel grabbed a menu off of the top of the piano.

"There," he said, slapping it on the piano bench, "Dinner."

"We're broke," Reno said, "Put together something from what we have. You remember how to make bread, right?"

"What? I haven't made bread in forever!"  
"Well, you'd better remember," Reno said, in a finalizing tone, "If you order chinese, you're paying for it."

Axel's shoulders slumped.

"_Man..._"

"Get cracking."

Axel stood.

"See you tomorrow, Roxas," he said, while he shuffled off to the kitchen. He didn't even glance at Roxas as he said it.

"...Yeah," Roxas replied awkwardly.

Reno had already opened the door to the garage. He was looking from Roxas to Axel again. Roxas had that same strange sensation he did when Riku had given him his narrow-eyed look. Reno, too, had probably just figured something out.

Roxas didn't want to think of what. Even though he already knew.

"All right, let's get you home. I don't want to leave Axel here for too long by himself in the kitchen."

"I heard that!" they heard Axel shout.

"Don't blow anything up!" Reno called back. Roxas walked through the door, and soon they were in the car and pulling out of the garage.

"So," Reno said when they were on the road, "you study a lot?"

"I'm in all honors and AP classes," Roxas said. Reno let out a low whistle.

"You're one of those _really_ smart kids, then."

"I guess," Roxas said.

"I'll bet you're going places too, after this. Where are you thinking of applying to college? Harvard? Princeton? Cambridge?"

"No," Roxas said shortly.

Reno laughed.

"Somewhere close by, then?"

"Probably. Take a left out of here," he added, when Reno stopped at the intersection just outside of the neighborhood.

"So what're you going to do with yourself in college?" Reno asked, after he made the turn.

Roxas shrugged.

"Math, probably. Or Chemistry. I like both."

"What about being an Engineer? If you're good at math, you can make a fortune being an engineer, you know."

"Really?" Roxas asked; he hadn't put much thought into college, yet. Probably because he didn't have time...or maybe he just wasn't making time. He really didn't know which, anymore.

"Oh yeah," Reno was saying, "I have a couple friends that went and got themselves into engineering, and they've got no money problems now. They both have nice houses, and nice cars, and all the rest of it."

"Huh," Roxas said, making a note to himself to look up engineering as a career option. He remembered he'd gotten engineering as a suggestion on one of those career quiz things back in his freshmen year, but he hadn't given much thought to it.

"So where from here?"

The rest of the trip Roxas spent directing Reno. After weaving in along the route the school bus took, Reno finally parked his small car next to the house.

"Thanks for driving me back," Roxas said.  
"No problem," Reno replied, taking his seat belt off and pulling his keys out of the ignition, "I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if you'd gotten run over on the way back, too."

He grinned at Roxas. Roxas smiled awkwardly back, and got out of the car.

By the time Roxas had gotten his skateboard out of the back seat, his mom was running down the front steps.

"Roxas, where have you _been_, I've been calling your cellphone all evening!"

She gasped when she saw his face.

"What _happened_?"

"He was skateboarding in the middle of the street over in the Town Gardens neighborhood, where I live—" Reno said.

"Oh, my god..." Mom interjected, putting her hands over her mouth, "Roxas—"

"I'm fine, Mom—"

"—I was able to put on the breaks early enough so that he wasn't seriously hurt, but he ended up running into my bumper—"

"You _hit _him?!"  
"Mom, I'm fine, I bounced off and rolled, that's it—"

"Roxas, you could have been _killed_!" Mom snapped, rounding on him, "What were you thinking?! _Do you realize how horrible that could have been_?!"

"Mom—"

"Give me that!"

"What?"  
Before he could protest any further, Mom had taken his skateboard out from under his arm.

"I'll give this back when you've graduated!"  
"Mom—!"  
"If you're going to go coasting through the streets and not pay attention, you're not going to skate at all! Not to mention your safety helmet—where is it? _Still in the closet, maybe_?"

Roxas was silent.

"Get inside! I'll talk to you later about this!"

Roxas complied, after waving goodbye to Reno.

"See you later," Reno had said, his expression neutral. He walked to the front door, listening to the dwindling sounds of Reno and his mom talking. Reno sounded like a parent already.

Sora was waiting for him on the other side of the front door. Dad was behind him.

"Hi" he said.

"What happened?" Sora asked. He looked about as worried as Mom did.

Roxas sighed. He really didn't feel like reiterating the story—again.

"Ask mom."

He walked up the stairs, shut the door to his room and locked it.

He hadn't locked himself in his room in years; the last time he'd done it was in middle school, for some silly reason. Now he just needed to lay down and think...

Roxas didn't do any homework the rest of that night. Mom came in some time later, after telling Sora and Dad what happened.

"What could you have been possibly thinking about that would take your attention off the road?" she'd asked, "You never do that. Is something on your mind?"

Roxas didn't answer. What would he say, anyway? 'A guy told me he liked me and I don't know what to do'? That would bring up all kinds of conversation that Roxas just didn't want to wrap his head around, at the moment. All he wanted to do was his homework...

"I'm fine, Mom."

Mom was doubtful, but after some more prodding, she left him alone. Roxas just lay on his bed after that, staring at the ceiling. Thoughts ran through is mind like wildfire, strung together so haphazardly that all they did was to make a nonsensical buzz inside his head.

Why was he like this, all the sudden? Was he really that aggravated about Axel? Wasn't it just a simple matter of telling him how he felt about this whole situation and moving on with life? Why the awkward silence today at Axel's house? Why did this feel so...strange...?

What was going on?

Between the bruises and his head, Roxas didn't get much sleep that night, either.

* * *

A/N: Poor Roxas. again, lol.

Until next week!

--Trempush


	12. Water

A/N: To Namine! Let's see how things are going today...

Reviewer shout-out: TouchMyKeyblade, 0life-is-a-song0, nekotsubasa, xHanako.

Thank you for your feedback!

Chapter title: Water

* * *

When Roxas and Sora rounded the corner and approached Kairi and Namine for their regular morning hang-out time, Kairi voiced exactly what Namine immediately thought:

"Oh my god, what happened to you?!"

Roxas was so stiff he was walking funny, and he had a large bandage over his right temple. He looked like he'd stayed up all night, too; there were dark circles under his eyes, and he could barely keep his eyelids all the way open...

"Skating accident," he muttered, shuffling to a stop in front of the both of them. Sora stopped next to him, with visibly more energy than Roxas looked like he possessed in his entire being at the moment.

"What did you do, fall off a cliff?" Kairi asked.

"He got hit by a car!" Sora exclaimed, "he said he was thinking about stuff, and then he got lost in Axel's neighborhood, and then Reno ran into him!"

"Could you be a bit louder, Sora?" Roxas snapped, rounding on his twin, "I don't think they heard you in the _portables!_"

"Reno?" Kairi asked, ignorning Roxas' outburst, "how did Reno end up running into you?"

"The same way anyone runs into you," Roxas griped, "you're skating, they don't stop in time, and then _splat!_"

"I meant how you ended up all the way in Axel's neighborhood when you live in Sunset Drive, Roxas," Kairi sighed.

"I got lost," Roxas croaked, "I was thinking about stuff."

"What 'stuff'?" Kairi pressed, "You usually can think about 'stuff' and still keep your eyes on the road."

"That's what Mom was saying last night," Sora added.

Roxas just shrugged his shoulders slightly; it looked like that was as far as he was willing to move them, at the moment.

"Stuff."

Namine wanted to ask him about his conversation with Axel yesterday at lunch, since she had the feeling that was what he was really upset about. She wasn't going to bring it up in front of Kairi and Sora, though; she'd have to call him later.

"So did Reno take you to the hospital?" She asked instead, before Kairi could pry any more.

"He just bumped me," Roxas said, "I rolled backward on the pavement."

"What about the cut?" Kairi asked.

"Probably from something on the road."

Again, Roxas nodded slowly.

"_Why _are you at school today?" Kairi asked, crossing her arms, "If you're so stiff you can't move, what's the point of coming?"

Roxas' eyes narrowed.

"Calculus. Quiz."

"Oh."

If it had been anyone else, Kairi would have tried to get them to leave before homeroom for their own sanity. Roxas, though,was painfully stubborn when it came to school, and they all knew that because he was already here, he wasn't going to fathom leaving again until the final bell rang no matter what anyone said.

"No wonder you look tired," Namine said.

"You should have seen him this morning," Sora said, eyes wide, "He was _really_ cranky."

"Thanks Sora, for making me sound like a baby," Roxas snapped.

"Well, you kind of were—"

"If I weren't so sore right now, I'd hit you."

Sora took a step away from Roxas.

"And while I'm talking," Roxas continued, "if anyone so much as touches me, I'm going to _kill_ them."

Namine and Kairi exchanged worried glances. Namine knew her sister was thinking the same thing she was, from that look: Roxas' mood was probably only going to get worse throughout the day...

* * *

"What happened to you?" Demyx asked, as Axel flopped into his seat at their end of the lunch table. Namine looked up briefly from her drawing to see Axel folding his arms across his chest, looking distant.

"Nothing," he said. He stared at an odd-looking sandwich he'd brought with him, not bothering to open it.

"Nothing my ass," Larxene said, "Why are you sitting with us again, all the sudden? Did your man-lover dump you, or something?"

"He's not my man-lover," Axel defended. He didn't sound as sincere as he usually did, though.

"Okay, what happened?" Demyx asked, leaning forward on the lunchroom table, "We know something happened."

"Did Roxas tell you about yesterday?" Axel asked.

Namine looked up to see him still staring at his sandwich.

"Not everything," she said, assuming it was herself that Axel was addressing. She was pretty sure, judging by Axel's mood, that she hadn't heard all the juicy details.

"Figures," Larxene said, rolling her eyes. Before she could say anything else, though, Demyx blurted out,

"So what's the rest of it?"

Larxene sighed, and stayed silent. Axel just kept staring at his sandwich.

"If you don't say anything, I'll throw something at you," Demyx said, holding his empty bottle of Sunny-D.

Axel stayed silent.

"I'll grill Namine!" he threatened, jabbing the bottle in his direction.

"I wouldn't tell you anything—"

"Shh!" Demyx poked her in the shoulder, and said in a stage whisper, "You'll ruin the dramatic effect!"

"Ow. What effect?" Namine said, "I don't think he's believing you."

As if to prove her point, Axel still didn't respond. Demyx sighed, and let the bottle drop to the table again, where it rolled away.

"Man. You're either really depressed, or really confused. And what's with that sandwich?"

All three of them simultaneously glanced at Axel's sandwich. The bread looked...amorphic.

"I made the bread, genius," Axel snapped, sending a glare over to Demyx.

"...oh."

The table fell silent. When things didn't pick up for a few minutes, Namine set her pencil down. She looked up, and was about to suggest something when she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye...

The kid from the other side of the table—Hayner—was making his way down the aisle behind Larxene and Axel, looking angry.

"uh-oh..." Demyx said under his breath.

"What?" Axel asked, seeing Demyx's change in expression. He looked up just in time; Hayner had walked right up to him, standing in between him and Larxene.

"So what's this about Roxas getting hit by your brother's car?" he drawled—as effectively as he could, considering how nervous he looked.

Predictably, Axel's eyes narrowed.

"Where'd you hear that from?"

Hayner shrugged.

"What's it to you?"

Larxene started to snicker.

"What are you laughing at?" Hayner snapped.

"_You,_ dumbass! After last time, you have the stupidity to come back here and start shit?"

Hayner shifted a little, still scowling. He looked like he'd been thinking the same thing.

"I just want to know why Roxas is covered in bruises! Sora said it was—"

Before he could say anything else, a hand had slapped over his mouth, and he was pulled backwards with enough force to throw him off-balance, forcing him into the side of the table next to Larxene. "What the—_Roxas_?!"

Roxas was standing where Hayner had just been—and he looked far beyond annoyed.

"I swear to god, Hayner!" He yelled, "If I have to come save your ass _one more time_ I'm going to beat the _shit _out of you!"

Hayner had shoved himself off the table, once he had realized he was face-to-face with Larxene. Now he was glaring at Roxas, arms crossed, looking defiant.

"How else am I supposed to find out what happened—"

"You can't just _ASK_?!"

Hayner jumped, at Roxas' tone.

"He had it coming!" he defended.

Larxene burst into laughter again.

"What do you mean, 'had it coming'?" Roxas was saying, "Axel didn't do anything, Hayner! He just stood there while Reno cleaned _this_ up!" Roxas pointed at the bandage on his temple. "And then Reno drove me home! If you want to have issues with Reno, fine! But don't get on Axel's case because you 'want to know what happened'!"

He made air quotes which, due to how angry Roxas was, looked a lot more menacing than air quotes should look.

"My side hurts..." Larxene said, in the midst of her efforts to calm down. Somehow, Namine had forgotten she was laughing in light of what Roxas had been saying. How rare...

Hayner just turned on his heel and left, without saying a word.

Roxas let out the breath he'd been holding. He suddenly looked really tired...

"Are you _sure _you shouldn't go home?" Namine asked.

"I'm fine," Roxas snapped, more severely than he needed to. He noticed that Axel was looking at him, and met his gaze for a split second—before turning towards the other end of the table again.

"See you all at the concert, I guess," he muttered, before making his stiff way down the aisle between them and the next table. Everyone on their side of the lunchroom was muttering a little more excitedly now, which meant that rumors were starting, probably...

"...Well," Demyx said, "I think it's safe to say that we know what happened."

Larxene, meanwhile was wiping her eyes.

"That made my day..."

Axel was still staring after Roxas. He looked thoroughly surprised.

"Axel?" Namine asked. Axel jumped, startled, and faced forwards again.

"What?" he asked distantly.

"You should probably eat that. You've got five minutes before lunch ends."

He glanced at the clock, not really seeing it.

"...Right..."

* * *

Namine found herself sitting in the hallway outside her art classroom later, where things were quiet. She really wanted to get this drawing finished, but for some reason it was taking a while—

"Hey, Namine!"

Demyx was standing over her, grinning.

"What are you doing over here?" Namine asked.

"I'm 'going to the bathroom'" Demyx said. He laughed. "They don't have anything for me to do, anyway."

Demyx had found last semester that working at the front office for one class period was a good way to take up credit hours while doing a minimal amount of work—especially since the helpers in the morning class periods beat him to all the hard stuff. Now he took a seat next to Namine, before she could say anything else. Not that she minded; Demyx was probably the last person that would annoy her while drawing. He was the kind of person that blended into the background wherever he was, seeming as though he'd been there all along.

"Whoa," he said, leaning in to look over Namine's shoulder, "That's neat."

"Thank you," She said, still staring at the drawing. "I just have to outline everything, define it more...and the ocean still looks a bit flat..."

"It does?" Demyx asked. She shifted the sketchbook over so that he could have a closer look.

"Do you see it?"

Demyx leaned forward and squinted at the pencil strokes, contorting his face into a funny expression. Namine laughed.

"You look like you're trying to read something small," she said.

Demyx straightened again.

"All I see is pencil."  
"I would too, if I looked at it that close up. It needs another color, for depth," Namine said, holding it away from both of them. Demyx tilted his head, and squinted some more. Namine waited for whatever he was going to say; judging by how Demyx usually worked if you waited long enough, he'd piece together something surprisingly insightful.

"Purple," he suddenly said, after a long pause.

Namine smiled.

"That's what I was thinking," she said, looking up at him.

Demyx's eyes widened in surprise.

"Really?"

"Yeah. You're developing an eye for it."

Demyx glanced at the picture again, and then looked back to Namine.

"Whoa...Cool!"

He grinned, looking every part of a kid that had just gotten something right for the first time—and it was in that moment that Namine had a small epiphany.

Back when Namine had first joined the band, there had been a moment just like this. They had been practicing at Axel's house. Axel had been inside, doing some chore Reno had told him to do. Demyx and Namine were the only two left in the garage, making the silence awkward; Demyx was very shy about who he practiced his guitar in front of, Axel had said Namine had decided to break the ice by complimenting him on his skills; she had been meaning to say it since she had seen them in concert anyway. She had noticed what delicate, intricate parts Demyx played—like water trickling down from a high place, lilting, yet somehow always coming back to the beat of the song just in the nick of time.

When he had said 'thanks', he had grinned—and all the nervousness that was there before had evaporated with it.

Now a puzzle piece fell into place, and it surprised her in its simplicity...and yet, its complexity...

"Uh-oh."

"What?" She asked, giving her head a shake; she hadn't realized she was still staring at Demyx.

"You just came up with something. I saw the look."

"...What look?" Namine asked, confused.

"That was the 'I know what I'm going to draw next' look."

"There's a look for that?"

Demyx nodded.

"Uh-huh."

Namine looked back at her drawing.

"Oh."

Namine hoped that 'look' didn't look too strange. That could be embarrassing.

"...So what is it?" Demyx asked.

"My idea?"

"Yeah."  
Namine smiled.

"Water."

"Just...water?" Demyx asked, skeptical.

"No," Namine said absently, as she started to fill in the ocean with shades of purple, "there's more."

"That means I'm not finding out, doesn't it?"

"No," Namine said, "not until I draw it."

Demyx sighed dramatically.

"I guess I can wait, then."

"You'll have to anyway."

He just laughed, at that.

They sat there for the rest of the period in silence, not really feeling the need to say anything. Demyx started humming a tune at one point, under his breath. Namine just kept coloring.

Mr. Marly finally opened the door, five minutes before class ended. He didn't have to say anything, either; he just gave Demyx one of his characteristic glances of indifference and told Namine to come inside, and that alone was enough to send Demyx scrambling off to the front office again, shouting a quick 'Bye, Namine!' over his shoulder.

"Friend of yours?" Mr. Marly asked, when he had gone. He was eying the corner Demyx had disappeared around.

"Yes," Namine said, "he's in the band."

"_Ah_."

* * *

She wasn't surprised later that night, when she saw Axel's name on the LCD screen of her phone.

"I'm confused," he said, when she had answered the incoming call.

"I won't ask about who," Namine said, "I already know."

Axel heaved a heavy sigh.

"It's just—he's fine with me, then he's not, and now he's standing up for me. I don't get it."

Namine didn't respond; she was making long curved lines on the paper before her, focused on every detail she remembered...

"Hello?"

"I'm here," she said, "I just don't have anything to say."

"...oh," Axel said, sounding disappointed, "No wisdom, or anything? Advice? Support—"

"Just sing, tomorrow," she said.

Axel paused; that was obviously not what he was expecting.

"The rest will come," she clarified.

"That's it?"

Namine laughed.

"What else is there?"

As Axel thought over this, Namine kept sketching out her new idea. _Flow_, she kept reminding herself.

"So...just sing?"

"Just sing, Axel."

* * *

A/N: Next up: the concert! Finally, right? I would think so...

PS: Check out my blog (on my profile)! It's both a personal blog and a blog for my writing etc. that I do online, all in one place. So if you want to read a combination of writing updates, random inanity, videos, fanart features and more, go have a look!

Until next week!

--Trempush


	13. The Concert

A/N: Here we are! READ THE NOTE AT THE END, THERE'S A BONUS!

Reviewer shout-out: xHanako, 0life-is-a-song0, TouchMyKeyblade, Catwiskers10

Chapter title: The Concert

* * *

"Hey, Sora?"

Sora stopped on his way to his own room, and poked his head in Roxas' doorway.

"What?"

Roxas leaned back in his desk chair; he'd been doing homework all afternoon to make up for the complete lack of studying he'd been doing throughout the past week. Thanks to Axel, he'd let most of his homework build up into a mountain of stress and aggravation that was leaving Roxas feeling more irritated than he had in a long time. He didn't think he'd ever felt so swamped before in his entire school career...thankfully he'd shut himself up in his room all day. Sora had taken the hint and had left him alone.

"What do people usually wear to a concert?" he asked. It was getting close to the time when Roxas and Sora had agreed to get picked up by Kairi, so he figured if he needed to change, he'd better do it sooner rather than later.

Sora shrugged.

"Clothes?"

Roxas rolled his eyes.

"What _kind_?"

"I just wear what I wear to school," Sora replied.

"Oh. Really?"

That was easy.

"Yeah," Sora said. "I mean, people dress up, but it's not like it's formal or anything—"

A loud tinny ringtone started blaring out of Sora's cargo shorts pocket, and in milliseconds he had glanced at the screen and answered it, saying,

"Hey, Kairi....Yeah, we're getting ready now—huh? What am I wearing—what's wrong with the shirt I wore to school today...?"

Roxas tried not to laugh too loudly, as Kairi verbally ripped apart Sora's outfit. Sora tried arguing it, but the end was inevitable; he finally shuffled off to his own room, where he and Kairi were going to find something nicer. Roxas got out of his chair and opened his own closet doors, entertaining the vague idea that he could at least change into something that was...cooler, maybe...?

After scanning over his mediocre collection of nondescript shirts, Roxas realized that what he was already wearing was probably about as 'cool' as he was going to get—and it was only a loose white shirt with a brand name on it in fancy black lettering. He shoved the closet door shut again, fighting the urge to change anyway for the sake of not being boring—and why was he caring about what he was wearing now? He'd never done that before...

"Ready?"

Roxas turned to see Sora in his doorway again, wearing a red shirt with some trendy colorful design on the front.

"Sure," Roxas said. He grabbed his wallet from his desk and followed his twin brother to the front door, attributing the feeling of apprehension in his stomach to excitement. He hadn't gone to a concert since last year, after all.

Not that it felt much like excitement, but he ignored that thought.

* * *

Jack's Tavern turned out to be an old refurbished warehouse, with an open wood floor in front of the large stage. There was a bar on the left that was surrounded by a low wooden wall, covered in posters and signs warning against underage drinking. The walls were covered in strange pirate-themed paraphernalia, interspersed with pictures of a crazy-looking pirate guy posing with famous bands and singers.

"That's Jack," Kairi said, noticing the strange stare Roxas was giving one of the photographs near the Tavern's entrance; the pirate dude was standing next to a tank with a mermaid in it.

"He's not from here, is he?"

Kairi laughed.

"No, he's from Port Royal," Kairi said, pointing at the picture. "And that's Ariel, from Atlantica."

"I figured," Roxas said, "the tail kind of gives it away."

"Hey!" Sora said, jumping up behind them and grabbing Roxas and Kairi's shoulders. Kairi jumped.  
"Geez, Sora, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

Sora laughed. Roxas pushed his brother's hand off of his shoulder; he was still sore from hitting Reno's car, and Sora was holding the shoulder he'd landed on first.

"So what now?" he asked, "We've got what, half an hour?"

"Let's go to the balcony!" Sora exclaimed

"Yeah," Kairi agreed, glancing at Roxas, "There won't be as many people up there, so you won't get bumped around a lot."

"That would be nice," Roxas said, "School was already bad enough yesterday—"

"Come on!" Sora exclaimed, going ahead of them and starting up a small iron stairway to their left, "Let's get to the front!"

"Dude, we're one of the first ones here," Roxas said, following after Kairi, "How could the balcony be that packed yet—?"  
"Yaaay, there's space!" Roxas heard Sora exclaiming at the top of the stairs.

Kairi laughed.

"I don't think he heard you," she said, looking over her shoulder. Roxas sighed.

"Why do I waste my breath?"

"Because he's your brother," Kairi replied, still smiling.

"I guess..."

The view from the balcony really was nice; it was built over the bar and facing the stage, but still low enough that one easily got the feeling of being close to the performers. Roxas joined his brother at the railing and leaned over as far as he could without losing his balance. He could read the brand names on the equipment from here—

"Yo!"

Roxas shoved himself back from the railing turned to find a tall red-headed man grinning at him.

"Any concussions yet?"

"Um—" Roxas tried to say, but Sora cut him off.  
"Reno!" he exclaimed.

"Hey!" Reno said, "Haven't seen you in a while! Hi Kairi."

"Hi," Kairi said, from Sora's other side, "You were able to come this time!"

"Amazing, isn't it?" Reno returned, crossing his arms, "I don't even have to skip out afterwards!"

"So why are you still in uniform?" Kairi asked. It was only then that Roxas noticed Reno's attire; he was wearing the same black pants and jacket as he was on Thursday.

"Didn't have time to change. I left early 'cause I thought I was going to be late, but I guess we beat the evening rush on the freeway."

"'we'?" Sora asked.

"I brought Rude, too."  
"Wow," Kairi said, "that's a first."

"Who's Rude?" Roxas asked.

"A friend of mine from work," Reno said, "He's around here somewhere..." he glanced around. When he didn't find anyone else on the balcony, he put his hands on his hips.

"Huh," he said, "I think I lost him."

Sora laughed.

"I'm sure he'll come back before showtime."

"He'd better," Reno said, "I'm his ride..."

He wandered off down the stairs.

Roxas leaned over the edge of the railing again and tuned out Sora and Kairi's conversation, instead watching the fast-growing crowd. There were a lot of different kinds of people, which Roxas found interesting; when Sora had described how Axel got when he was singing, Roxas had gotten an image of a punk rocker into his head. He was half expecting to feel out of place for not having a freaky hair color, or something. There were a few people like that, Roxas noticed, but for the most part the clothing and hair were looking pretty normal.

The place was already starting to feel warm when the lights went down, as the crowd was pretty dense at that point. Everyone started cheering, and their noise soon filled Roxas' ears. A light flickered on in the center of the stage, revealing none other than the pirate guy that was in the pictures on the walls. The crowd's cheering became louder when they saw who it was and he smiled, holding up his hand.

"Good evening, everyone!" he shouted into the microphone in his hand, "If you don't know me yet, I'll introduce myself," he tipped his hat to the audience, "Captain Jack Sparrow, owner of the Black Pearl and this lovely home away from home."

Everyone clapped.

"Since I will be your host tonight," he continued, "I have my own special...standards of operation, if you will. This means that rum is on the house, and our famous fireworks show will commence afterwards."

"Fireworks?" Roxas shouted to Sora over the crowd around them.

"There's this guy, Cid, he's really good at making shapes and stuff!" Sora shouted back, "We should stay, it's really neat!"

"All right," Roxas said.

Jack announced that there would be three bands showing tonight, the last one of which was Hibiscus. The first group had some long name Roxas couldn't remember, but they sounded decent; they were a rock band that sounded like a combination of some of the people Roxas listened to anyway.

The next band was better—they were more together, and a lot more energetic. A mosh pit started during their first song, and someone almost got onstage by the second song, before being hauled off by security. It looked like people were starting to get drunk already by the way they were crashing into other people, and everyone was starting to relax. Roxas would have wanted to go down there and get closer to the front, but he didn't dare move from where he was; he didn't want to ruin the fun he was already having by getting elbowed in the middle of a bruise or something.

He found himself getting more excited the closer it got to Hibiscus' turn onstage. Roxas figured it was just because he was curious about how their band sounded, but he found himself thinking more about Axel than anyone else. For the life of him, Roxas couldn't picture a crazy Axel in his head. All he could see was the nervous Axel—the Axel that froze up when Roxas came by, the Axel that couldn't form a sentence when Roxas confronted him about things.

After what seemed like forever, the second band left the stage and Jack came on to announce Hibiscus. Roxas felt his hands gripping the railing on the balcony and he leaned forward, the rungs pressing against a tender spot on his stomach. It flared up in pain, but he ignored it, instead watching the stage intently for any sign of Axel, or Namine. He didn't even pay attention to what Jack was saying, only glad to see him leave the stage again—

The lights went out. The cheering was so deafening that Roxas could barely hear himself think. Regardless, he kept his eyes glued to the stage, waiting...

An electric guitar riff, loud and clear, could be heard suddenly over the crowd. The spotlight came on and revealed a tall, skinny guy that Roxas recognized from lunch; he was sitting next to Namine every time Roxas had gone over there. The crowd cheered again as he started improvising solo on the guitar, intricate phrases of notes falling from his fingers as easily and effortlessly as one breathes. Roxas was definitely impressed.

"Whos' that?" he shouted to Sora.

"Demyx!" Sora shouted back.

Just as he said that, they heard Demyx's guitar settle into a rhythm of arranged chords, and a drum stared playing in the background.

"That's Zexion!" Sora said, "And the girl on base's name is Larxene!"

"Thanks!" Roxas said. Sora nodded, and they both turned back just in time to see the stage erupt in sound and light, as everything was turned on and up at once. Roxas didn't have time to comprehend what was happening before it hit him in the face; an explosion of well-trained synthesizers and drums and base and guitar were all blending perfectly together, as though they were one entity. The crowd surged with a new energy, cheering more loudly than they had so far—

Roxas felt his body freeze as a figure ran out from backstage amidst screams and grabbed the only unclaimed piece of equipment: the microphone, on its stand in the front of center stage.

His jeans were tight and black, topped with two or three belts, loose at his hips. He was wearing a deep red T-shirt with the word 'Rock' on the front that was so tight Roxas could see his muscles moving underneath it from his spot on the balcony. His green eyes were vivid and bright, flashing out from the black eyeliner in stark contrast with the rest of his face. He had a tattoo on his upper arm that Roxas hadn't noticed before now; a plain black heart was sticking out from his sleeve. The music lulled, and Axel flashed a wicked grin at the crowd before taking a deep breath—and singing.

His voice was loud and clear, permeating the concert hall to every far corner, filling it with an energy that soaked into Roxas' skin and making it tingle with excitement so strong it was palpable in the air around him. The crowd below was screaming, cheering, dancing with visibly more vigor than they had only minutes before, and it only escalated as the song swelled and then halted at an end. Roxas found himself cheering with the rest of them, not able to hear his own voice it was so loud.

"Thank you!" Axel shouted, "We're Hibiscus, if you don't remember the name, _tough shit_!"

A cheer erupted from the crowd, and Axel laughed.

"I'll bet you'll remember now, huh?"

There was a smattering of "YEAH!'s from mostly guys. Someone in the audience shouted, 'I LOVE YOU HIBISCUS!'" in a shrill voice. Others laughed.

"Thank you!" Demyx said, into the microphone in front of him, "We love you guys too!" That caused more cheers to fill the hall. Roxas wondered if he was doing backup vocals.

"All right!" Axel continued, and all attention was focused on him again, "We've got all new songs for you guys tonight in honor of our first feature show _ever,_ so it's a very special night for us—"

More cheering. Axel waited for a second, while it died down enough for him to talk again.

"We've been working hard to get these together since last time we were here, and we have a total of six more songs for you guys tonight!"

The crowd yelled in agreement.

" _Are you ready?_" Axel shouted, that gleam in his eye again. Roxas felt a thrill go through him when he saw that look, and dimly, he wondered why...

Cheering exploded again, and Axel raised the microphone to his mouth, shouting,

"_One, two, three, four_—!"

The music was more powered this time, faster—like a train going too fast, or a car doing 90 on the freeway. Again, Axel's voice blasted through it all and dominated the instrumental; he sounded as though he was pouring every ounce of energy he had into the microphone, only to find more strength and bring it out on the next surge of sound. It was...amazing. Roxas found himself caught by it, transfixed on this display of personality that was everything but what he'd come to know Axel as.

But this Axel seemed more real, more vibrant, more true. Every note, every lyric that he sang as the band played through their set, was full of a life and character that hooked Roxas, drew him in like a movie that made you think, a book that you couldn't put down. Even if he didn't know any of them from school, Roxas knew that this music, this...passion—it would have hooked him then, too, because every sound was sparking that fire deep in his chest. It was the spark that flared up every time he heard really good music, making him remember just how much he loved all of music's intricacies—and making him regret the day he decided to leave the piano bench for good. He'd had talent—enough for his teachers to talk about sending him to a music school for college—and he'd left it behind. He hardly thought about it now, but now it was all coming back...

"_I just know what sounds good. Kinda."_

Axel's words flashed through Roxas' mind, still vivid after two days, and Roxas remembered with a jolt that Axel didn't know any music theory. He didn't know any of the rules, and yet he played with them so well that he was pulling out more feeling in those watching him than Roxas could ever have hoped for with his own music.

"_How can you write songs without knowing how to write them down?"_

"_I just think of it. I hear it in my head..."_

Roxas remembered putting together songs in his head. He'd come up with quite a few, but they never got written, even though he knew how to do it.

When the fifth song ended and the cheering had died down, something strange happened; Roxas noticed echoes of the other Axel—the one Roxas had gotten to know—in his his movements now.

"Okay guys," Axel said, "This last song has a story behind it."

Roxas saw Larxene shake her head. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a movement—and turned to see that Demyx was looking right at him.

"Hey! He found us!" Sora said, waving. Demyx glanced at Axel again, who was pulling a high stool out from behind one of the amplifiers, and then back at Roxas.

He winked.

"Did you see that?" Sora laughed, beside him.

"Yeah," Roxas said, giving a confused look at Demyx. Demyx stifled some laughter and turned his attention back to Axel, who was situating himself on the stool and adjusting the microphone stand to his height. People were laughing, and cheering again.

"That was weird—" Roxas said.

"Are they planning something?" Sora asked, turning to Kairi.

"_Ssh! _I'll tell you later—!" Kairi said hurriedly, before she was cut off by Axel.

"So I'm not going to tell you the whole thing" he was saying, "but long story short, there was someone who I wanted to know better, but I was afraid I'd scare them away by acting stupid."

"In other words, he's got a little bit of this going on," Demyx said, and he made a heart with his hands.

A collective 'awww' went through the audience—mostly girls this time.

"Shut up, I'm talking," Axel said. Everyone laughed.

Everyone except for Roxas, that was.

He was too busy feeling like he'd been hit by a train.

"Anyway, this song was the way that I got over that fear," Axel continued, "So if you're still in the audience, um...this is for you. You know who you are."

Roxas felt a poke in his side. He turned to see his twin brother gawking at him.

"Do you think he's talking to—"

"_SSH!_" Kairi hissed on Sora's other side, grabbing his arm, "They're about to start!"

"Okay, sorry—!"  
Demyx had switched out his electric guitar for an acoustic one at some point. He was playing on it now—a slow ballad-type song, simple and elegant. Axel had closed his eyes. When the guitar paused he took a deep breath, opened his eyes again, and sang:

As I stand here,

reaching, suspended,

I see you there, standing closer than far

and I'm frozen, beyond all knowing,

beyond all pain,

standing closer than too far away

Namine turned a dial; a synthesized chorus of strings started to fade in, humming in the background.

and I know this fight is a loss to begin with,

I know this fire won't burn away anytime soon,

but I want so bad, to just say hello to you

to just hear you say hello to me

Drums joined in, and the bass started to make a warm hum in the background. Axel's singing became stronger.

As I stand here,

watching you pass by,

I realize that this feeling is new,

and I'm so scared, but far too excited,

I'm too far gone

standing closer than too far away

And I know this time, this feeling is far too strong,

to just swallow down, it's impossible to ignore,

so just hear me out,

as I try to get to know you now,

as you try to understand me now.

All the sounds surged as one again, propelling the song into the bridge like a wave about to break on the shore. Axel was frowning, concentrating—

And I know sometimes things don't work out,

No matter how you try, it goes down in flames,

but I'm more afraid of not trying at all

I'm more afraid you won't see me at all

Axel almost yelled the last line, reaching just above his range and grabbing a note, then backing down again to hold it over another surge of strings and bass and everything else—

I'm trying so hard I'm not making sense,

and you're probably already moving on,

but I have to act now or I'll never say,

How much I've already fallen for you!

He held out the last note, letting it float over the chorus of violins and strings and guitar, following it as it went up, and down...and then fell, into the guitar and the synthesizers by themselves again. Axel's voice matched them, softer—as though he were speaking, yet he was still singing...

So just hold on,

don't walk away yet,

It might take time,

but I'm closer than far,

if you'll comply,

I swear I will try,

my best to make

this work out right, I'll be by your side,

I'll stand closer than too far away.

Demyx strummed the last chord triumphantly, and let the note hang there in the amplifiers, slowly dying out.

The whole tavern erupted with sound. Screaming, clapping, shouts, laughter, everything. Roxas heard it all as though it were from a distance; the only sensation that he was comprehending were his hands still gripping the railing of the balcony, his lungs as they tried to remember how to breathe, and the feeling of his own heart rate thudding against his chest. His mind was blank, completely wiped of every thought he'd been thinking on any level of his mind save for one thought:

_Axel...w_rote _that_...for...

Roxas felt someone grab his arm, and pull.

"Whoa—!" he yelled, as he was yanked backwards into the crowd by—

"Kairi?" Roxas asked, catching a glimpse of her red-brown hair.

"Come on!" she commanded, giving his arm another tug.

"What're you doing—?!"  
"You," She called back, "are going backstage!"

Roxas' insides turned to ice.

"_What?! _Wait, Kairi—!"

"Not listening!"

"KAIRI—!"

What the hell was he supposed to say to Axel after all of that?! He couldn't even fathom forming a complete sentence at the moment, and it was all he could do to comprehend what Kairi was telling him. And so he followed weakly after her, feeling like a limp noodle as he ricocheted against the bodies of random people on their way down the stairs and through the hot, cramped bottom floor.

Kairi yanked him past the security guard standing at the entrance to the backstage, who nodded as she flew by.

"Hi, Kairi," he said.

"HeyLexaeusgottarunseeya!"

"Whoa—!" Roxas added, as he was yanked ahead again. He thought he heard the guy laughing, but he wasn't sure. He didn't know anything anymore, really.

Kairi finally let go of his wrist when they were standing outside of a narrow wooden door somewhere backstage, which she knocked on loudly. Roxas massaged the wrist she'd been holding.

"Kairi, I really don't think this is a good idea—" Roxas started, but then he shut up when they heard someone fiddling with the door.

"Oh, hey," Larxene said, when she'd opened it, "that was quick, we just got back here."

"Is Axel here?" Kairi asked.

"No, he's out back taking a cigarette break" Larxene said, pointing down the hall.

"Axel smokes?" Roxas asked, despite himself.

"No," Larxene replied, "he just takes breaks like a smoker."

"Oh—"  
"Thanks!" Kairi said cheerfully, and before Roxas knew what was happening, he was being dragged down the hall towards the back of the building.

"Agh!" he exclaimed, as he was yanked to a stop in front of Kairi. She tugged at the sleeves of his shirt to straighten them.

"Okay," she said, sounding more like a mother than Roxas had ever heard from her before, "Now you need to go out there, and talk to him."  
"Kairi—!"

"No complaining!" Kairi cut off, suddenly sounding very stern. "After he was nice enough to write a song for you, the least you can do is thank him."

Before he could protest anymore, Kairi had yanked open the back door, turned Roxas around, and sent him flying out into the night with a strong, firm shove.

"WHOA!" Roxas exclaimed—for the millionth time that evening, it felt like—before accomplishing his most spectacular act of clumsiness since puberty and tripping on his own shoes, which sent him falling flat on his face. On the gravel. Outside.

"Roxas?"  
...In front of Axel.

Roxas pushed himself up to a sitting position, wishing that he could just rewind time a few seconds and try again at _not_ looking so stupid. He was glad he'd managed to save his face from getting mashed in rock shards, anyway...

"Hi," he said, noticing with a jolt that his voice sounded nothing like it usually did. Axel was sitting on a bench against the wall of the building, holding a bottle of water. His eyebrows were raised in surprise.

"Did you just get...shoved out of the back door?"

"Yeah," Roxas said, as he pulled himself the rest of the way up, "Kairi dragged me back here."

The corner of Axel's mouth twitched, and a laugh escaped his throat.

"Dragged? As in—"

"Yes, as in grabbing my arm in a death grip and running," Roxas finished, busying himself with brushing the gravel off of his hands and front.

"Ouch."

"No kidding." He straightened and looked at Axel. He looked very calm, now. It didn't explain why Roxas' insides felt like a bag of butterflies, but that was his own problem.

They stared at each other for a moment, silent.

"You...wanna sit?" Axel finally asked, gesturing to the other half of the bench.

"Sure," Roxas forced out, walking over and taking a seat next to Axel. Now that he was closer, Roxas noticed that Axel had a layer of sweat on his forehead, soaking the roots of his hair.

"Enjoy the show?" he asked, smiling a little. Roxas just stared at him dumbly for a moment. Then he realized he was staring dumbly, and gave his head a shake.

"You guys are...really,_ really_ good," he said. It wasn't as spectacular as how he could have described it in his right mind, but that had been pretty much obliterated from shock, and it wasn't going to pull itself back together anytime soon.

Nonetheless, Axel's smile widened.

"Thanks," he said.  
"You're very talented," Roxas found himself saying. Axel looked at Roxas' face for a moment, and then let out a laugh.

"And you're blushing," he said.

Roxas froze. Did he just hear that right?

"What?"

"Right there," Axel said, and he poked Roxas in the cheek.

"Ow, what the—?" Roxas shoved the hand away, which made Axel laugh again. Roxas definitely felt the warmth in his face now.

"What happened to you?" He asked, glaring at Axel. He was more confused than angry, but this wasn't helping his already scrambled mind.

"I think I can ask the same of you," Axel returned, grinning, "I didn't know you were capable of blushing."

"I've known you for two weeks!" Roxas exclaimed, thrown by the comment. Did Axel leave his second personality on the stage, or what? And who was this, personality number three?

"All right, fine," Axel said, crossing his arms, "When's the last time you were so embarrassed your nose turned red?"

"What?!"

"Right there—"

Roxas smacked Axel's incoming finger away, getting more irked and confused by the second.

"I know where my nose is, asshole! And I'm not embarrassed!"

"Then what are you?" Axel asked, holding back more laughter.

Roxas didn't answer. He really didn't know why he was acting so stupid, especially when Axel certainly had acted more stupid than this since school started. Maybe it was the realization that Axel was more than just a spineless puddle of awkward was making Roxas...rethink things. Or something. Maybe he felt guilty for assuming things.

Maybe.

He knew he shouldn't have come out here. This was just making his head hurt.

"It can't be that hard to figure out," he heard Axel saying.

Roxas looked up to see Axel watching him, a smile still on his face, just...relaxed. Happy. Like things were going all right.

Not how someone usually acted after confessing their feelings for someone else in a song onstage. They didn't in those stupid chick flicks Roxas and Sora and had been dragged to by Kairi and her friends before she and Sora had started going out. Wasn't he supposed to be nervous?

"I still don't get it," he said.

Axel sighed, and rolled his eyes.

"You and your logic."

"What?" Roxas asked defensively, "It's just—you're..." He didn't finish, suddenly not really sure what to say. He'd had a good idea when he started talking...

"I'm what?" Axel askd, leaning closer.

Roxas looked away again. That smirk was making him feel more scrambled.

"Well," he started again; he found it was easier to collect his thoughts when he was staring at the ground, for some reason.

"You're the leader of a band, make awesome music that's better than most of the stuff they play on the radio, and then you—you write a song, to get over being nervous... around _me._"

The words were reluctant to come out of his mouth, but he forced them out anyway. Whatever was making him act so strangely needed to stop...

"I would think if anything," Roxas blundered on, " it would be the other way around—"

He stopped. Did he just say what he thought he said?

He looked at Axel. He was still grinning.

"Oh,_ really_ now?" he asked, leaning over, "Does that mean you want to write me a song, too?"

"What the—No!" Roxas spluttered, scooting further down the bench.

To his suprise, Axel burst out laughing. Roxas just stared at him, completely perplexed by—well, everything. Even Roxas was confusing Roxas right now, and that hadn't happened in...

That had never happened, actually.

"And why are you so happy all the sudden?" Roxas added, "You've been all nervous and awkward, and now you're...not..."

By this point Axel had regained control of himself again.

"It's really not that complicated, you know," he said.

"Really?" Roxas asked, skeptical.

At this, Axel scooted closer to Roxas, closing the distance Roxas had made between them.

"All right, Einstein, I'll lay it out for you," he said, draping his arm over Roxas' shoulders. Roxas' shoulders tensed, surprised by the contact. His stomach did some weird flip that made him think he was nauseous, but not in that puking way.

That didn't make sense.

"I'm happy that I finally got to say everything I wanted to," Axel stated. Roxas' mind gummed up at the words; he couldn't believe what he was hearing. 'everything he wanted to'? As in, he couldn't before, so he had to sing it out on a stage instead of just telling Roxas himself?

_That's_ what he'd wanted to tell Roxas...?

"And," Axel continued as leaned over, reducing the volume of his voice, "I saw someone's reaction from the second floor of the Tavern. You're pretty easy to pick out from a crowd."

Roxas froze. He had no idea what his face had been doing during that last song at the concert, but now he _really_ wanted to know—

"which gave me the impression," Axel said, so close now that Roxas could feel his breath on his neck, "that the feeling was mutual."

Roxas' senses felt like they were on overload; he wanted to run away and stay put and stop everything all the same time. His eyes met Axel's, and once again he was amazed at just how vibrantly, unnaturally green they were. How did eyes like that exist, anyway—?

"Is that enough of an explanation?"

Roxas felt more than heard the question, Axel was so close.

"Y—yeah," Roxas managed to say—although when he said it, he wasn't sure what he was agreeing to anymore. His mind was blank, and all his senses were focused on Axel's warmth, his smell...

They both heard a cracking, popping sound coming from above them, followed by cheering.

"Fireworks," Axel said, without moving. Roxas didn't respond; he felt like if he did anything, said anything, whatever limbo he was floating in would suddenly vanish—

Axel leaned forward, and closed his eyes.

And Roxas got to feel what it was like to be kissed.

The sensation felt awkward at first, and the first thing that flashed through his mind was how dry Axel's lips were—but the thought only hovered there for a second before it was obliterated in the rush of feeling that hit him. His breath slowed to a tentative drawing in of air and his heart rate was suddenly amplified in his ears, warming his entire body even as it tensed, unsure of what to do. He felt nervous and awkward and relieved all at once...time seemed to stop completely as they stayed like that, hovering in a hazy suspended animation.

After what seemed like too short of a time Roxas felt the pressure on his lips lessen, then go away completely. He opened his eyes and was met with a stare so penetrating that Roxas felt like Axel, too, could see the realization that was settling in his mind, breaking through every barrier he'd put up against what he'd seen as silly, until now.

"You're...really serious about this."

It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah," Axel said, his voice barely above a whisper.

In the following silence, they both again became aware of the fireworks show still going on above their heads. Axel pulled back after a moment, and looked up. Roxas did the same, very aware of Axel's arm still around his shoulders.

Glittering gold and red fireworks were exploding over the roof of the Tavern, filling up the black sky. The gold lingered after the red ones had faded, creating a backdrop for the next display; a series of blue and yellow spirals snapped out of their shells and twirled downward, dissipating into sheets of colored sparks as they went.

"Cid's good," Roxas said.

"Yeah," Axel laughed.

They sat in a comfortable silence after that. All the nausea, the awkwardness, the everything that had been there before was gone, leaving Roxas feeling just...relaxed. He was still in shock over all that had happened, and if it all hadn't felt so real he would have been sure that this was a dream. It was hard to think that only hours before, Roxas was sure he knew enough about Axel to know he didn't want to subject himself to the bipolar roller coaster he seemed to be.

One song later, and the whole image of Axel Roxas had held in his mind was a pile of ruins. The thought that things were moving too fast came to mind, but...it didn't feel fast at all. If anything, it felt...

right.

Roxas smiled at the thought. That's the word that summed up this evening. That's the word that made everything make sense, fit together in that puzzle Roxas felt like he'd been trying to solve since Axel said his first awkward 'hi'. It didn't make sense, and yet...it did.

"So what does this mean about us?" Roxas asked aloud.

"Well Roxas," Axel said, his eyes still on the show, "I just poured out my heart to you in a song in front of hundreds of people and then we kissed. Unless you're leading me on, I think that means we're a thing."

Their eyes met. To his own surprise, Roxas laughed.

"Yeah," he said, hardly believing his own words, "I think that's a pretty safe assumption."

* * *

A/N: MY GOD it took me forever to write that kissing scene! Geez...it's worse than writing action scenes, I swear! Not that I write a lot of those either, but still! YARR!

Anyway, I SANG THE TUNE I MADE UP FOR THE SONG! It's really quiet 'cause it was about midnight Monday night when I started working on recording this, and it ended up getting puked out of movie maker at around 1:00. WMM did something to the sound quality, but it always does :'(

GO TO THIS LINK TO LISTEN!!-- http: //www. youtube. com/ watch?v=VSu826Qo7Oo (without the spaces, obviously)

I want to make a full-out accompaniment and legitimate vocal track to go with it later, but I have to figure out how first. And have the time/patience. I've got an idea in my head, but I don't know my theory that well and what chords equal what sound and all.

So yes. If there aren't at least some of you that are a puddle of gooey happiness right now, I will retreat to a corner and cry.

I'm a dork, yes I am...

See you next Wednesday! Which won't be nearly as exciting as this Wednesday, but yeah. The show must go on somehow!

--Trempush.


	14. Influence

A/N: All right guys, put on your sappy glasses, 'cause it's about to get bright in here.

Reviewer shout-out: Mel's Merleawe, Nekotsubasa, ArianZephyr, Cleo Leo, hikarin, xHanako, catwiskers10, 0life-is-a-song0, embirsiphonelilathia

Thank you all for your wonderful feedback!

Chapter Fourteen: Influence

* * *

Axel had realized something, when he was onstage that night. In the middle of the singing, the crowd and the energy, a small epiphany had crashed into him:

He didn't have anything to be nervous about.

All the little things that Roxas said and did had been filed away in Axel's mind, and he'd pulled them out countless times to turn them over, analyzing them in every way he could think of. What he hadn't done, though, was put them all together; he had been under the impression that one had to understand the pieces before they understood the whole. But Axel realized right then, as he was belting out the song that summarized everything he felt for Roxas, that it was the summary of Roxas—the big picture—that made the most sense. All his actions towards Axel by themselves had been disjointed and strange, leaving Axel with nothing more than an aching head. When he thought of all of them at once, though—like he was doing onstage—Axel realized that there were signs. They were scattered, hidden in between the doubt and confusion, but they were there.

And then Axel had noticed Roxas on the balcony.

"_Just...make sure you don't go too far without knowing if he feels the same."_

Namine's words had deflated what little courage had been instilled in him by Roxas being friendly. Now, he had his answer.

And he had nothing to worry about.

When he saw Roxas after the show, it was obvious. It was so obvious that it made Axel giddy with delight, seeing just how easy it was to make him uncomfortable. He'd been caught up in his own world, trying his best to overcome his own fears, when all along...Roxas had been slowly coming to realize, without his own knowing, that he too was excited. Curious. After the concert, he was outright flustered. He almost sounded like he was trying to convince Axel that he didn't like Roxas, that having a crush on Roxas just didn't make enough sense to be validated. He was watching Roxas' own personal battle, and Axel was winning. It gave him strength—it gave him a rush, a feeling unlike anything he'd experienced before in his life. He felt like he could do anything—he was even bold enough to land a kiss on Roxas, and he was glad when he did. Roxas had seemed to think so too; when they pulled apart again, all Axel could see were the crystal seas of blue that were his eyes, and they were unfocused, dazed. Open.

"you're...serious about this."

God yes. He never really thought about it until now, but this feeling was more than just a crush, an interest. This feeling, this thrill stirring deep inside of him...it was stronger than anything he'd felt before. There was something more to Roxas than what most people saw—that's what attracted Axel, and it was what was keeping him here now. Yes there was more to him—so much more. There was a skeptical romantic, swept away by Axel's actions, hardly believing they were true. There were vulnerable feelings, covered by biting comments and and a desire for facts to hide behind. Roxas ignored his feelings as much as Axel noticed them, and in his own way Roxas was lost within himself, never having to have come out before and face what was thriving right on his own surface.

It finally made sense.

He'd been fully expecting Roxas to tell him to get lost when he suggested their being 'a thing', but it seemed that Roxas was willing to take his chances, too. So there they were, meeting up with the band after the fireworks, enduring a million questioning glances from Zexion and Larxene, warm smiles from Namine, and awkward admittances on Axel's part. Everyone had hashed out which car to get in, where they were going afterwards. And then it was time to say goodbye.

"So," Roxas said, looking nervous again, "I'll, um...see you Monday?"

They were in front of the Tavern, standing next to Demyx's van full of their equipment. Sora, Kairi, and Namine were all waiting in Kairi's car for Roxas to catch up. Reno, Rude, and Demyx were waiting for Axel.

"Here," Axel said, pulling out the marker he'd shoved in his pocked after some girl had asked him to sign her ticket stub, "I'll give you my number. That way you can call whenever."

"Oh. Um..." he began to search his pockets. Axel just grabbed his hand, and pulled it towards him.

"You didn't need this, right?" he asked, as he attacked Roxas' skin with what turned out to be a very fat permanent marker, instead of a pen.

"I could have just programmed that into my phone, you know."

Axel felt himself smiling again for what felt like the millionth time that evening. His cheeks were going to be sore in the morning, he was positive.

"Aha," he said aloud, as he snapped the cap back on the marker, "but you can't lose your hand now, can you?"

"...the phone would have been more efficient."

Axel laughed. It was funny to him, how brutally honest Roxas was. He'd never met anyone quite like that before.

"Well, now you'll have it in two places."

He squeezed Roxas' hand again, before letting it go.

"See you Monday."

"Yeah," Roxas said. He stood there, smiling awkwardly as Axel walked backwards for a few yards towards Demyx's van. He finally had to turn around to see where he was going, but he gave the movement some pizazz by winking at Roxas before swiveling on his heel, feeling a new rush of that good feeling as he did so.

Oh yeah. He was gone. He was so far gone he didn't know which way was up anymore.

He opened the door to the passenger side of Demyx's van and bounded in, still grinning like an idiot. Demyx was laughing.

"What was with the twirl thing?" he asked.

"Hell if I know," Axel replied, his tone reminding him of Namine's when she was keeping a secret.

Demyx shook his head. He waved to Reno's car in front of them, and Axel saw his brother give a thumbs-up out of the back window before gunning it down the street. Demyx followed behind them onto Traverse Highway, which would take them back to Axel's neighborhood. Once they had hit a good cruising speed, Demyx spoke.

"So!" he said, glancing at Axel, "do you officially have your first boyfriend?"  
Axel nodded, still grinning. His cheeks were already starting to hurt.

"And that's second boyfriend, if I must remind you."

"_Real_ boyfriend," Demyx said, "confessing that you're gay and kissing me doesn't count. Especially 'cause it was two years ago and I'm still not gay."

"We officially dated for a week, Mr. Bi-curious."

"You flirted with me for a week because you _thought_ I was bi," Demyx corrected. "I told you I wasn't, but you didn't take no for an answer."

"You didn't stop me, so you must have been curious," Axel said matter-of-factly, shrugging, "I didn't see a problem."

"It still doesn't count, Axel, so just admit it; you're falling all over yourself and you have no experience. You're in the same boat he is."

"Oho, so we're talking about _experience_ now?" Axel said crossing his arms, "And, how many girlfriends have you had? What was that? _None?_"

"Aha, but I'm still single," Demyx said, pointing to himself, "You," he jabbed Axel's shoulder, "Are officially in a relationship. You need to know these things now."

"I _do_ know these things," Axel said, grinning again, "I have made out plenty of times before, thank you."

Demyx coughed.

"Oh, sorry," he said, "There was something in my throat, could you repeat that?"

Axel narrowed his eyes.

"You're not nice."

"Let's see," Demyx said, feigning deep thought, "There was that one kiss with me, and then...what happened after that...?"

Axel let out a theatrical sigh.

"All right, since you're _so_ interested—"

"Ah ah ah!" Demyx interrupted, "Just the serious stuff. I'm not talking about all the stuff you did while younger than five, high, or just goofing off."

Axel let out his breath.

"Damn."

"_Ha!_"

Axel let Demyx laugh; if he'd been feeling more grumpy he would have retaliated, but Axel was too elated at the moment to really care.

"Seriously though, I wasn't talking about making out," Demyx said, when he'd calmed down again.  
"What were you talking about, then?"

"The other stuff," Demyx said, "You know, the actual relationship?"

"What about it?"

"Just...be careful, I guess," Demyx said, "and don't get stupid about it. You know."

Axel smiled.

"I'll try not to. Can't promise anything, though."

Demyx nodded in approval.

"Just checking."

They rode for a while in silence. The high from being with Roxas was starting to lose it edge, leaving Axel's mind to wander with other thoughts. Not bad ones, just..other ones.

Like thoughts about his friend's depressing love life.

"Hey, Demyx."

"What?"

"Do you like anyone?"

Demyx sighed.

"I _knew_ that was going to come up," he said.

Axel flashed him the millionth grin he'd grinned this evening.

"You know it. Now spill."

Demyx shrugged awkwardly. He suddenly reminded Axel of a child who knew he was about to be in trouble.

"It's...nothing new," he said quietly.

Axel grabbed the dashboard and pulled himself up from his horrible slouching position.

"Wait a minute," he said, "If it's nothing new, then that means—"

"Yeah...."

"Dude!" Axel exclaimed, "it's been six months!" He grabbed Demyx's shoulder again and shook it, "_Say something_!"

"Get off!" Demyx shouted over Axel's dramatics, "I'm driving!"

Axel let go.

"Someone's cranky."

"Can we just leave me alone right now?"

"_You_ can," Axel said, "but I won't."

That earned a glare. It wasn't very sincere, though.

"Come _on_, Demyx! This is getting stupid!"

"I'm not going to say anything," Demyx declared. "So just lay off, all right?"

"Why not?!"

Demyx didn't respond right away; he was merging over to the right, as their turn was coming up soon.

"I'm just...it wouldn't work, all right?"

"How do you know? Have you _said_ anything to her—?"

"What if she said no?"

Axel rolled his eyes.

"That's your excuse?" he asked flatly.

"I'd...still have to see her afterwards, and all..."

Axel groaned. Demyx had to be the worst candidate on the planet for taking initiative. His 'go-with-the-flow' mentality was so ingrained in his system that it was painful to watch him try and break out of it.

"What?" Demyx snapped, although it came out more like a whine, "we don't even talk that much, and she's so different—"

"Hel_lo_!" Axel said, holding out his arms, "Look at me! I just scored with one of the smartest kids in the school and I'm an idiot! _Anything_ can happen!"

Demyx laughed.

"You're...it's different," he said.

"How?!" Axel asked, "you like her, she's out of your league, take a chance anyway! Sounds the same to me!"

Demyx heaved another sigh as he turned off of Traverse highway and right into Axel's neighborhood.

"You're insane enough that you can pull it off," Demyx said, "I'm...not."

"So you're just going to be a chicken about everything?"

"No, it's not that—"

"If you don't say something within the next week, _I_ will."

The van wobbled a little.  
"Axel, I swear to god, if you say anything to her—"  
"And what're you going to do to me?"

"_Don't_! Axel!"

Axel met Demyx's worried expression with an exasperated one.

"Why not?" he asked sincerely.

Demyx turned his attention back to the road. They were almost at Axel's house at this point; a couple more blocks, and they'd be there.

"I just...don't think it'd work. I like her, I really do, but...I'm not the kind of guy that she needs."

Axel had a reply ready for Demyx before he even finished his sentence, but it ran away and hid before he could get it out.

_The kind of guy he needs..._

"Axel?"

"Huh?" Axel asked absently, giving his head a shake.

Demyx was giving him a funny look.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah," Axel said, replying automatically.

Demyx pulled the keys out of the ignition.

"Okay," he said. His tone of voice made it painfully obvious, though, that he didn't believe Axel. Axel just pushed himself out of the passenger seat, landing on the pavement in front of his house a little more shakily than he would have liked...

* * *

It didn't take long at all to get all the equipment out of the van, with four people helping out— especially when one of them was Rude. He was probably the biggest guy either Axel or Reno knew, and he could certainly carry a decent amount of weight and then some.

"You should come to more concerts, Rude!" Axel said, watching as the guy picked up the heaviest amplifier they had with one hand. He was carrying another amp in his other hand.

"If I had time," he said, "You kids are good."

Demyx left, after that. They invited him to dinner, which they had planned to have after the concert when Rude had been invited along, but Demyx declined. Axel had the feeling he needed to go home and think about things; he had that 'I want to be contemplative' look about him. He never had those times himself, but that was one of the things that Axel admired about Demyx; he took time to assess things. Axel would probably drive himself crazy if he tried to be like Demyx.

Dinner was fun; Rude and Reno had quite the time grilling Axel about his new boyfriend. Reno even tried to give Axel the 'birds and the bees' talk right there in the restaurant, but Axel made sure the plan backfired by saying,

"What's the problem? It's not like I'm going to get pregnant, or something."

Rude just about suffocated from choking on his drink, at that. Reno tried to save himself by mentioning 'other things like diseases', but that got looks from the table nearby. Or maybe they were in shock over Axel's comment. It didn't really matter; Axel was too busy laughing his ass off at his brother's expression to care.

"And no sleepovers!" Reno finished, "If I'm off for a night, I'm not going to spend it trying to keep you guys decent!"

"I wouldn't do anything, honest!"

"Like hell you wouldn't."

"Is this another one of those 'if I did that at your age, you will' things?"

Rude ended up laughing so hard that he had to tell them to stop arguing, and not because it wasn't entertaining; he was just having a hard time breathing.

In the end, Axel promised to abide by his brother's new set of rules. He didn't really have a choice, but he figured that it would make everyone feel better in the end if he just sucked it up and walked the straight and narrow, for once.

For once...

In the lull of conversation after Rude had calmed down, Axel's mind came back to what Demyx had said, about not being good enough. Which brought him back to the thought Axel had had, right before he'd gotten out of Demyx's van:

What if he was a bad influence on Roxas?

Axel wasn't a good kid by any stretch of the imagination; at seventeen he already had a past he didn't want to talk about, and former 'friends' he'd rather forget. What if they found him again? They sometimes already did, and the rumors were still alive and well, but...now Axel had something a little more than pride at stake...

"Hey, you. What's up?"

Axel looked up from his plate at his brother. Reno was the sole person that had gotten him out of that mess, and while Axel had never said it, he really was thankful. Especially now...

He shook his head.

"Nothing," he said. "Just thinking."

* * *

A/N: Dark and scary past! Can't have Axel without one of those, lol...

Next up: Roxas!


	15. Fears

Reveiwer Shout-out: xHanako, Nekotsubasa, TouchMyKeyblade, Mel's Merleawe, Magicmania46, 0Life-is-a-song0, cherrybomb10295, catwiskers10, hikarin-love, Elle-is-odd, anime-lova-xoxo

Thank you all for your wonderful feedback! Ooh, and just in case anyone who's interested has missed it, there's a deleted scene on my account from this story. It's posted separately, and is a continuation of chapter 11 from Axel's perspective.

I usually post this earlier (at midnight), but I had a migraine. The pain's still kinda there, too, even after a decent night's sleep. Ugh.

Anyway, happy reading! :)

Chapter title: Fears

* * *

Roxas found he was smiling despite himself, as Axel swiveled on his heel and fell into his friend's van wearing a goofy expression—and did he wink? Roxas shook his head. This all still felt like a dream to him— the concert, the fireworks show, Axel's words...everything, even down to the warped chicken scrawl that Roxas was staring at on the back of his hand now just didn't seem to add up to what it was.

And yet it was.

Roxas gave his head another shake, and put his hand in his pocket. Vaguely, he wondered how long he'd been standing here—

"Roxas?"

Sora was at the curb, holding the front passenger door to a white car that was idling in the street behind him.

"Kairi's going to leave without you pretty soon if you don't hurry up."

"Oh," Roxas said, as though this was news to him that he'd been taking his time, "Sorry..."

He hurried over, apologizing to an impatient-looking Kairi as he slid into the back seat next to Namine, who was smiling broadly.

"Looks like things worked out," she said, once everyone was situated. Roxas felt himself smile again, as he got his seat belt on.

"Yeah—"

"Whoa!" Sora exclaimed.

"What?" Kairi asked, looking around, "is there someone coming—"

"What's on your hand, Roxas?"

Kairi's eyes narrowed.

"Sora! I thought we were about to run into someone!"

"Oh! Sorry, Kairi."

"It's Axel's number," Roxas said, holding his hand up, "He wrote it on my hand instead of waiting a couple of seconds so I could pull my phone out."

Beside him, Namine laughed.

"That sounds like him," she said.

"He did it in permanent marker, too" Roxas said, frowning, "I can't wash it off now."  
"That sucks," Sora said, leaning in between the front seats to see.

"Wow," he said, when he'd examined Roxas' hand, "that is some pretty nasty handwriting."

"It used to be worse," Namine said, "it was impossible for me to read notes on how he wanted songs, when I first joined the band."

"Dude, really?" Sora asked, turning to her.

"Really."

Roxas glanced at his hand again. If he remembered the silly quizzes that told about people's personality from their handwriting, he would be analyzing these sorry excuses for numbers right about now—

"So!" Kairi said, all smiles now as she glanced at Roxas in the rearview mirror, "does this make you and Axel a thing?"

"...Yeah," Roxas said, after a pause.

"Don't sound so enthusiastic," Sora said, laughing.

"Thanks, I try," Roxas returned dryly.

Kairi laughed.

"That's good, then. I don't know how you would have turned him down, after all that."

"Yeah," Roxas agreed, feeling his face warm up again, "_That _was..."

"Completely out of the blue?" Sora offtered, "'cause that's what I was thinking."

"Yeah," Roxas said.

"Well, not _completely_," Kairi said, "we all knew Axel liked Roxas."

"Well yeah, but...I don't know. I don't really know him, but I never would have expected him to do something like that."  
"I wouldn't have either," Namine said, "But that's Axel."

"Yeah," Sora agreed, "It's...kinda weird."

"You get used to it," Namine replied with a smile, "there's a rhythm."

"A rhythm?" Sora repeated; he sounded as confused as Roxas felt about that statement.

"She means he isn't completely random," Kairi said, "he surprises you, but he's still predictable sometimes."

"In a vague way," Namine added.

Roxas didn't say anything. He was too busy staring out of the window, thinking...

Was there a reason _why_ Axel was like that? He really had seemed like a different person, both on stage and after the concert, than he had before. Now Namine was talking about his being...predictably unpredictable. If it was his habit to have such tendencies...was there something that started it, or had he always been like that...?

"Roxas."

"What?" Roxas asked, not turning away from the blur of trees and houses that was flying by the car.

"How are you going to tell everyone?" Namine's voice floated into Roxas' ear and landed right in the center of his buzzing mess of thoughts, and forced them all to come to a clumsy halt.

"About...my being gay, you mean?"

"Yeah," Sora said, "you know, everyone who went to Jack's tonight is going to be trying to figure out who Axel wrote that song for."

"R-really?" Roxas asked, as his insides suddenly turned cold. "Oh..." He mentally stared kicking himself for not thinking of that earlier; the last thing he wanted was for his friends to find out his big secret from some concert gossip, instead of from him. _Why didn't he say anything?!_

Oh, right. Because Axel was being all forward and landing kisses on Roxas without asking.

"I sold a lot of tickets at our school," he heard Namine saying, "and the place was packed. You saw."

Roxas closed his eyes.

"_Great_," he muttered.

"You should call him tomorrow," Kairi said, "He's probably out with Reno and Rude right now, so you're good for tonight..."

Roxas sighed. He hadn't even thought about that whole coming out business. Sure, Roxas knew he needed to do it sometime—not right away, but _sometime_ during his life—but he had wanted to wait until later...

Then again, he hadn't been planning on Axel writing him a song. Not that he minded that part, but that wasn't the point...

"Are you all right?"

Roxas opened his eyes, and turned to meet Namine's artificially blue stare.

"Yeah," he said, "I...just have to call Axel tomorrow, I guess."

She smiled.

"I'm sure he'll understand. He had to do the same thing, you know."

"How did he do it?" Roxas asked, knowing full well what the answer was before the question was even out of his mouth;

"Ask him."

Roxas smiled; he really had known Namine for too long. He nodded.

"I'll do that," he said.

They talked about the fireworks show for the rest of the time. Apparently Roxas had missed some really interesting displays, but descriptions were enough of a substitute for him.

Kairi dropped them off at the end of their street. After they said their goodbyes and Kairi drove off, Roxas and Sora walked to and into their house in silence. Their parents weren't home—there was a note on the fridge announcing that they were out running some errands. Considering that they were still out, that probably meant that they were having dinner out somewhere too. Which was just as well; Roxas really didn't feel like detailing all that had happened to his parents just yet...

It wasn't until Roxas was holding the doorknob to his room that Sora spoke; he had stopped on his way to his own room, turning to Roxas as he said,

"So you're serious about this?"

When Roxas looked up, he noticed that his brother seemed a bit awkward—like he didn't know what to make of the whole Axel thing. Roxas surprised himself with his own conviction, as he didn't hesitate to nod.

"Yeah," he said, smiling. "It's...kind of crazy, but...yeah."

Sora raised his eyebrows.

"Wow."

"What?" Roxas asked; he could tell Sora wasn't saying something. He had a feeling he knew what, too; "Is it about Axel?" he asked.

Sora took a breath, like he was bracing himself. Roxas frowned in confusion; Sora only acted like this when he was forcing himself to say something he didn't want to...

"I've heard things around," Sora blurted out, "And...I don't know if they're true or not, but...if they are, then...he has an interesting history..."

Roxas felt his stomach clench. Uh-oh.

"W-what kind of...history does he have?" he asked.

Sora held up his hands.

"I've only heard bits and pieces—"

"But whatever you heard is making you act all weird—"

"It could be nothing," Sora cut him off, "That's why I don't want to say anything—"

"But you are!" Roxas snapped, "by not saying anything, you're saying something!"

"This is why I didn't want to say anything!" Sora said, running a hand through his spiky hair, "I shouldn't have said anything!"

"Why did you, then?" Roxas countered, his voice rising with Sora's, "Will you make up your mind—"

"It's probably not true anyway!"

"—Sora!"

Sora froze.

"If you're going to say it, then just say it," Roxas said quietly. He didn't now how they had gotten to yelling, but it was making him nervous. Especially with how Sora was acting...

"Okay," Sora said avoiding Roxas' eyes, "I've heard...that he was in a gang once."

"...A gang?" Roxas repeated flatly, "in Twilight Town?"

Sora frowned.

"That's the part that confused me...I mean, I've heard about there being one here, but I've never actually seen or heard about any of them..."

Roxas sighed.

"Someone was probably just pulling your leg, Sora."  
"But what if part of it's true?" Sora asked, meeting Roxas' eyes again, "That'd mean...and Kairi even said he was unpredictable..."

Roxas stared at his brother for a long moment. He knew that people were scared of Axel, and there was probably a good reason that Roxas had never cared to find out because it hadn't related to him before. He was regretting his tendency to be so out of tune with the world around him, now.

Still...

"Kairi and Namine wouldn't be friends with him if he was dangerous," Roxas rationalized.

Sora frowned.

"What if they don't know?"

"Well, how did you find out?"

Sora shrugged.

"I've just...heard it around..."  
"Then they probably know about it too."

"Oh."

Sora still didn't look convinced.

"I could ask him tomorrow," Roxas offered. He was going to anyway—it probably wasn't true, but now Roxas was wondering how on earth Axel had gotten that tacked to his reputation; he wasn't _that_ tough-looking...

To Roxas at first glance, he had just looked like a rebellious kid with too much hot topic in his closet. Was he missing something that others were seeing? Or was that the other way around...?

And why was Roxas analyzing everything he was learning about this guy?

"But if it's not true," Sora was saying, "then it'll seem kinda weird asking about that, wouldn't it?"

"Why?" Roxas asked.

Sora shook his head.

"Hey look, just forget it. I'm just...never mind."

Roxas frowned again.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, watching as his brother shifted his weight to his other foot, suddenly looking awkward again.

"Well..."

Roxas waited.  
"Just—don't get stupid about anything," Sora forced out finally, turning redder than his shirt as he talked, "I'm not saying you shouldn't not like the guy, I mean, I know you're gay and all, _that_ got covered two years ago, but don't go all head over heels when you barely know him! And don't go too fast or anything, just 'cause you're both guys—not that I'm going to get into details, but you get when I mean, and—"

"Are you worried about me?" Roxas asked, finally putting the pieces together in his head.

Sora stopped babbling in mid-sentence.

"I—"

"You're worried about me."

The corner of Sora's mouth twitched upwards, a little.

"Is...that bad?"

Roxas felt himself smiling. Inwardly, he relaxed; so that's what was behind all this. For a moment, he'd thought his brother had some sort of grudge against his...well, new boyfriend.

It felt kind of weird, thinking that.

"No," he said, "It's just kinda surprising, that's all."

"I mean, it's the first time this has happened," Sora said, "You know, it's just..."  
"Different?" Roxas offered. Sora smiled back.

"Yeah."

Roxas nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed, "It is...for me too."

"But not in a bad way?" Sora asked.

"...No—"

"Good. Now don't obsess over what I said all night and then be all tired and cranky tomorrow."

"Okay—"

"And don't attack him with questions next time you talk to him, either."

Roxas frowned.

"Why? If I just ask—"

"No!" Sora snapped, "'cause if they're not true you'll end up getting into a fight, or something!"

"Fine, I won't attack him with questions!"

"Promise?"

Roxas rolled his eyes.

"_Fine,_ I promise..."

* * *

It was a long, agonizing morning on Sudnay before Roxas ran out of excuses for postponing his call. He'd run through a million scenarios in his head, forgotten half of them the second he tried to keep them in mind, and then tried to forget the whole ordeal altogether and work on homework—only to discover that he couldn't focus, which brought him back to square one. He had to call, and there was no reason why he shouldn't. They were a thing now.

Whatever a thing was. What was that, anyway? How were they going to date, anyway? Roxas never knew the details of dating, and the realization that he knew absolutely nothing about being in a relationship in general was making him feel rather stupid.

He wasn't used to feeling stupid. Not that the feeling was foreign, but still—it was never this...strong before. At the moment, he was convinced that no matter what he said, it would come out sounding completely ridiculous. He should just stop now while he still had some dignity, and forget the whole thing and get back to studying, you slacker.

Roxas looked at his cellphone. It was one in the afternoon. If Axel wasn't up by now, it wasn't Roxas' problem if he got woken up by someone calling him. If he didn't pick up, Roxas would just leave a message and call back later. His annoyance at making himself wait this long was finally outweighing his apprehension to calling.

He barely glanced at his hand, as he punched in Axel's number; apparently he'd memorized it already. He wondered if that was a bad thing, or not—

The line rang. Roxas tried to ignore the strange way his stomach clenched.

It rang again.

"Come on..."

Ring number three....four...all right, he wasn't there. This was stupid anyway.

What was he going to say on the answering machine again?

Shit—!

"Hello?"

"Um," Roxas blurted out, surprised. That wasn't an answering machine.

"...Roxas?"

That was definitely Axel's voice, unfortunately. Roxas was kind of wishing he'd called the wrong number, now...

"Y-yeah, it's...me."

"Wow," he said, suddenly considerably happier, "Took you long enough."

"Huh?"

"To call?" Axel clarified. Roxas frowned.  
"If you wanted me to call at a certain time, you should have said something."

It would have taken a load off of Roxas' back, anyway. Geez.

Axel laughed.

"I guess I wasn't clear on that."

"You wrote a number on my hand and walked off. What's to guess?"

"All right, fine," Axel said, in an amused tone, "I wasn't clear. I apologize for being vague."

Roxas rolled his eyes.

"So!" Axel said, "Why did you call? Since, you know, you have to have a reason for everything."

"Very funny."

"Does that mean you're being spontaneous?"

"No, it just means you're making fun of me."

Axel laughed again.

"Fair enough. So what is it?"

"Well I was...going to just wait until Monday, but I...kind of can't. It's about...our being together."

"...oh," Axel's voice was very small, suddenly.

Crap. That probably wasn't the best way to put it.

"It's not you or anything," he said hastily, "It's just...I—

"Is this a break-up—?"

"I haven't told anyone I'm gay yet," Roxas blurted out. He frowned. "Break-up?"

"Nothing!" Axel said hurriedly, "It just sounded—never mind."

"That would be a bit fast for a break-up..." Roxas said.

"Good to know!" Axel said, his tone a little too bright.

Roxas's eyes narrowed a little bit—as though Axel could see him.

"...that didn't sound good, did it?" Axel asked.  
"No. It didn't."

"Sorry, you just kinda scared me there," Axel said. He cleared his throat, and it sounded like he was shifting something in the background, "So! You're still in the closet, huh?"

"I guess..."

"Why? You can't tell me you're confused, or anything like that."

"Obviously."

Axel laughed again.

"So why doesn't anyone else know, if you know?"

Roxas hesitated.

"Come on, what is it?" Axel prodded, "Do you think your friends won't like you anymore, or something?"

"No. Well—some of them, maybe. That's not it, though..."

"Okay," Axel said, "So...do your parents know, then?"

"Yeah."

"And they're okay with it?"

"Yeah."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Roxas said, pulling his homework towards himself again, "Really."

"Wow," Axel said, "you're lucky."

Roxas' pencil paused over his page; Axel's tone of voice sounded very serious, suddenly.

"Was...your dad not okay with it?"

"Nope. Neither were a lot of my friends at the time."

"...oh."

"Yeah, it sucked. It was just a bunch of stupid stuff, looking back on it. Comments, names, all that. Someone tried to beat me up once for it." Axel laughed, "He didn't have a chance, I was so pissed."

Roxas didn't respond; his mouth had gone dry.

"But I guess the good side is I'm pretty much immune to whatever now," Axel continued.

"I...see..." Roxas managed to say.

"...That's what you're afraid of, isn't it?"

Roxas felt his face start to flush, again.

"It's not like I can't handle it, or anything—"

"You just don't want to."

The way he said it was enough for Roxas to know that he understood just exactly what Roxas was talking about.

"Yeah," Roxas said quietly.

"Guess you can't really think your way through that one, can you?"

"It's just...stupid."

"So you were just going to not say anything until the stupidity went away?"

"Something like that."

"Oh. Oops," Axel said. Roxas could see the grin in his mind's eye perfectly.

"Well, I wasn't expecting...any of that..."

"I wasn't either! Hell, I didn't even know you were gay for sure until last night."

"What?" Roxas asked, frowning.

"Well I tried to ask Namine, but she didn't give me anything, so I had to wing it."

Roxas couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Wait," he said, "So...you went through all of that without even knowing if it was going to work or not?"

"Good thing my instincts were right, huh?" Axel said, in that same loud, cheerful brightness he'd had at the beginning of their conversation.

"What if I had rejected you?"

"Well, you can't win 'em all," Axel said casually, "Get over it, move on."

Roxas raised an eyebrow.

"Just like that?" he asked skeptically, "after all that effort you went through?"

"No, I probably would have been pretty broken up about it, actually. I mean, I've never done that kind of thing before."

Roxas felt his stomach do that weird flip thing again. He wished it would stop, it made him feel sick every time it happened...

"Oh."

"You thought this was standard, or something?"

Roxas cringed.

"No, it's not that—"

"I'm just kidding, geez," Axel interrupted. Roxas could tell he was grinning again. "You're too easy to pick on."

Roxas rolled his eyes.

"It doesn't mean you have to do it."

"Aww, come on, that was fun."

"Whatever."

That made Axel laugh again.

"Anyway," Roxas said, "about the...coming out thing—"

"Ah, don't worry about it. If anyone gives you trouble, you can tell 'em your big bad boyfriend will come beat 'em up."

Roxas raised an eyebrow.

"I'm _not _saying that in front of anyone."

"Yeah, I figured. I wanna know if anyone tries to pull shit, though. I'm serious about that."

Roxas nodded.

"I'll...keep that in mind."

"Good."

Roxas found that it was easy, now, to focus on the same homework problems that were giving him trouble before. How strange...

"So, about Monday," he said.

"What about Monday?"

"Well I have to tell my friends, for one thing."

"So tell your friends."

"Yeah, I'm going to," Roxas said, "But _before_ then, if you say anything about us—"

"Oh, I see. You want me to shut up until everyone knows."

"...Yeah," Roxas agreed. He wouldn't have put it that way...

Axel sighed a dramatic sigh.

"I don't know if I can do that, Roxas."

Roxas froze.

"What?"  
"Well, you know," Axel continued, "If anyone asks about who I wrote that song for, I might just not be able to help myself."

Roxas ignored how his face was starting to feel warm.

"Axel!" he snapped, "Is it really that hard to just not talk for ten minutes while I tell my friends, at least?"

"You know I'm going to get asked by a ton of people on Monday—"

"It doesn't matter! I haven't told anyone—!"

"But I _want _to tell people!" Axel countered, obviously amused.

Roxas' face was burning now.

"Axel I'm serious!"

Axel started laughing again.

"Fine. You'd better hurry up, though."

"Thank you."

Roxas put his marked hand to his forehead, feeling a slight headache coming on. Just thinking about bringing the subject up with his friends seemed awkward and just weird. He just didn't want to talk about it. End of story.

Not that it mattered now—he had a boyfriend. He needed to tell his friends. He needed to talk about it. End of story.

They talked for a good while longer; by the time Roxas finally pulled himself away from the phone in light of the studying he still had to do, two hours had already passed and it was somewhere around three in the afternoon. Roxas remembered frowning at the clock, trying to think if he'd ever talked that long to anyone before.

He decided after a good minute or so of scraping through his memories that he hadn't.

* * *

A/N: Well, that chapter ended up being longer than I thought it was going to be. Axel and Roxas just kept chattering! The part with Sora and Roxas took the longest to write, though...but now it's done! YAY!

Until next week!

--Trempush.


	16. Blurry

Reviewer shout-out: 0Life-is-a-song0, nekotsubasa, xHanako, papillon porcelaine, dawnstep, ArianZephyr, Vithian,

A/N: Yay, more Namine! I can finally describe that picture of Kairi! Namine drew it and is done with it, but it never got described!

'cause I know that everyone's thinking about that. Yeah, you know you are.

Oh, fine.

Chapter title: Blurry

* * *

Sunday started early for Namine; at three in the morning she was wide awake, desperately sketching shadows of half-formed figures as they bled out of her dream's memory. She wasn't quite sure what any of them meant, or even if she'd be able to decipher them when she woke up later that morning— but the recorded fragments from these images that woke her at odd hours were giving her inspiration for her art. So she sketched, letting her mechanical pencil lead her through the dark, wondering what she'd see this time when she turned on the light...

* * *

"What's that?"

Kairi was looking over her shoulder seven hours later, squinting at a mess of blurry figures and shapes.

"Dreams," Namine said simply.

"Oh, one of those," Kairi said, understanding. It wasn't the first time Namine had done this.

For a long moment they sat there, staring at the set of pages Namine had arranged on her desk.

"...I think...I see a grim reaper," Kairi said finally. She pointed to a piece of paper in the upper left corner, held in place by Namine's desk lamp. Namine pulled it out from under the lamp's base and held it out at arm's length; she didn't have her glasses nearby.

Taking the very center of the page were the remnants of a formidable character in her dream—a tall cloaked man, with a long scythe that glinted dangerously along its sharpened edges. She had struck fear into Namine's dream self, a terror stronger than anything she remembered feeling in a dream,.

"I remember him," she said.

"Does that mean you're gonna draw him?" Kairi asked.

Namine tilted her head. This fear...it was strange, how strong this was. She was positive she had never seen anything quite like that weapon in her life.

It intrigued her; it was perfect.

"Yeah."

By the time it was one or so, the scythe had been enlarged on another piece of paper in her sketchbook, underneath the water picture. It looked very formidable indeed. She decided to go to the garage and work on a color scheme...

* * *

"Hey, Namine?"

"Yes?" Namine asked, looking up from her paper. Dad was leaning into the garage from the doorway.

"Were you expecting anyone over today?"

"No. Why?"

"Axel's here."

Namine put her brush down.

"Really?"

It had been a while since Axel had showed up at their house unannounced— it was the only time he showed up, but that was something everyone was used to, by now. In the year Namine had been friends with him, her parents had gotten accustomed to Axel's random visits just as much as Namine had.

"Yeah. He's in the living room. He seems excited about something."

Namine was already getting off of her stool, careful not to bump into the wet paint on the canvas.

"I think I have an idea," she said, "of what it might be..."

"And what's that?" Dad asked, holding the door open for her.

"Something to do with Roxas."

"Roxas?" Dad echoed, "Are he and Axel friends now?"

"More than," Namine said, smiling.

Dad raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"_Roxas_?"

Namine laughed.

"Yeah," she said, "He's not very vocal about it."

"I guess not..."

They were in the kitchen at this point. Namine could hear Axel's voice floating in from the living room; he was talking to mom.

"_...must be very exciting,"_ Mom's pleasant voice was saying.

"It's not very surprising, though, is it?" Namine asked, turning to Dad again. Dad shook his head.

"Nah." He smiled, "Don't tell him I said that, though. He'd probably get offended, or something."

Namine laughed.

"Don't worry."

With that, she stepped into the living room. Mom was sitting on the couch, turned so that she was facing Axel as he leaned against the arm of the loveseat, which was situated parallel to the bay window at the front of the house. Axel waved when Namine walked in.

"Hey, Nami—whoa, you don't have your contacts in."

"Boo," Namine said, noticing that Axel was certainly full of energy today...

Mom laughed.

"You're not used to seeing her without her contacts, are you?"

"I never go without them, so it's not a wonder," Namine said.

"When did you start wearing those, anyway?" Axel asked.

"Middle school," Namine said. "I've told you that."

"Oh."

"Something occupying your mind?" Namine asked. Axel shrugged, trying to make the action seem casual.

"You could say that."

"And what might that be?" Mom asked.

"Well," Axel said, "You know Roxas, right?"

"It would be hard not to," Mom said, "Considering that the Leonhearts are old friends of ours."

Axel's eyes widened a little.

"Oh yeah," he said, "I, ah...forgot about that."

Namine came to sit on the other end of the couch, furthest away from Axel.

"There's no need to be nervous," she said.

"What's to be nervous about?" Mom asked, concerned.

"Um," Axel struggled, "Well, ah..."

"They're dating now," Namine finished.

"Oh!" Mom said, looking between Namine and Axel, "That's wonderful!"

Axel smiled hesitantly.

"So you guys know about Roxas, then?"

"Tifa told me that a long time ago," Mom said, "There's no need to worry about that."

"Seriously?"

"We knew the day after Roxas told them."

"We did?"

They all turned to see Dad standing in front of the doorway to the kitchen, holding a snickerdoodle and looking confused.

"Yes, we did," Mom said with a laugh, "Don't you remember?"

Dad frowned.

"When was this conversation?"

"The same time the shop moved to Main street. We had just moved the last of the flowers that past weekend."

"...really?"

"It doesn't sound like he was listening," Namine said.

"You should listen more often, Cloud," Mom said, "You might miss something."

Namine saw Axel hiding his laughter, out of the corner of her eye.

Dad gave a nod.

"Well," he said, "I know now."

"It's not surprising, is it?" Mom said.

"Nope," Dad said. Then, without another word, he took a big bite out of the snickerdoodle he was holding and walked back into the kitchen.

Mom got up.

"Well Axel, you're welcome to stay here as long as you like," she said, "I need to run by the shop for a couple hours, but if you're still here at dinnertime, I'll make you do prep work."

"No problem, Mrs. Strife," Axel said, straightening his face. Mom smiled, and followed Dad into the kitchen.

"Come upstairs to my room," Namine said, getting up from the couch, "I've got something to show you."

* * *

"_Whoa!_"

Namine smiled. She steppe back from her sketchbook, turned to the page she had just finished coloring a couple of days ago.

"Has Kairi seen this?"

Namine tilted her head, thinking.

"Not yet, actually," she said. "She and I have been so busy—"

"HEY, KAIRI!"

Namine turned to see Axel with his head out of her bedroom door, shouting down the hallway towards Kairi's bedroom door.

"What?" Namine hard her sister shout back.

"COME SEE THIS KICKASS PORTRAIT OF YOU!"

They heard a thump and some shuffling, before Kairi's door burst open.

"_What?_"

"You're in Namine's art portfolio!"

"Again?"

"Yeah, come check this out."

Namine stepped aside and faced the doorway just as her sister bounded into view. She froze when her eyes fell on the sketchbook propped on Namine's easel.

The Kairi in the drawing was standing very high up on a beach that, again, looked like the beach near aunt Yuffie's house. The sand was swirling around Kairi's feet and legs, reminiscent of a sea creature wrapping itself around its prey. She was looking to the sky, her face proud and defiant, glaring at some unknown force that threatened from the edges of the drawing; dark, endless black swirled like smoke on the right side of the portrait, held back only by a thick shield made of light that Kairi was creating with her outstretched hand, palm facing the blackness as though she were ordering it to halt right where it was. There was no winner in this piece; only action.

It had been something Namine had been wanting to try for a while, but she hadn't had the right idea for it. She had wanted it to be perfect. As with all of her drawings, though, it significantly fell short of the remnants of the vivid images and stories her mind put together, when she wasn't paying attention to them.

"Omigod, Namine, it's _wonderful_!" Kairi bound over to where Namine was standing and threw her arms around her sister.

"_Thank you!_"

Namine smiled, and hugged her sister back. She hadn't wanted to show it to Kairi until she was completely done with the piece—right now it looked like it needed more depth, to Namine—but at the same time, she was extremely relieved. She had known that Kairi would probably like it, but...knowing for sure was different.

"I'm so proud to be in your art project!" Kairi said, stepping back. She was beaming.

"Want to see my other one?"

"No, it's going to make my eyes bleed," Axel said, rolling his eyes. "What do you think?"

Kairi turned to him.

"Ha _ha._"

Axel just grinned.

Meanwhile, Namine had turned to the next page in her sketchbook, staring at it for a moment before propping it up on the easel again. She hadn't spent a lot of time on it since Friday, when she'd first gotten the idea; all it was now was a mess of outlining and about half a pencil's worth of blue.

"Can you guess who it is?"

Kairi squinted, and tilted her head. Axel barely glanced at it, before letting out a laugh.

"Well _this_ is interesting."

"You can't have figured it out already," Kairi said, not moving from her position right in front of the easel.

"Look at the hair," Axel said, leaning over Kairi's shoulder and pointing at the three different head shapes Namine had been contemplating, before finally settling on one.

"What hair? All I see are scribbles—"

"Nonono, look at the circle there."

"Yeah, I see that—"

"Now look above that."

Kairi tilted her head the other way.

"See it?"

She shook her head.

Namine laughed.

"It's Demyx," she said.

Kairi's eyes widened.

"_Oh_, that's a guitar neck! I thought that was another arm, or something!"

Axel snickered.

"Just for that, you should totally give him tentacles now."

Namine and Kairi looked at each other— and then started to laugh simultaneously.

"He could be squid-man!"

"I don't think that would fit with the other portraits," Namine said. Meanwhile, Kairi was holding her sides.

"It works, right?" Axel asked, grinning.

Namine took a deep breath to calm herself, and watched as Axel stepped closer to the drawing.

"So you're going to draw his guitar?"

"No," she said, her voice sounding more quiet than usual over Kairi's laughing, "It's going to be a different instrument."

"Oh, 'cause the whole element thing, right?"

"Yes," she said. She turned to Axel.

"So why did you come over today?"

Axel shrugged.

"I was bored. Reno's not home, and I felt like talking to someone."  
"Did Roxas call?"

"Yeah," Axel said, smiling. Then his face fell into a frown. "At like, one in the afternoon."

"So it took him all morning to pick up the phone," Namine translated.

"I bugged him about that," Axel said, "and then he was all like, 'you should have said something if you wanted me to call'."

Axel imitated Roxas' voice in a annoying nasal pitch. Namine laughed again.

"And of course I didn't get his number," he went on, "so I was waiting for my cellphone to ring all freaking morning— I picked up four wrong calls! Three of them wanted me to sign up for insurance, and the other was some creepy-sounding guy that got the wrong number."

"Are you serious?" Kairi asked; she'd gotten a hold of herself again.

"Yes! He sounded like a pervert!"

"Maybe he meant to call you, then." Kairi said, grinning.

"Yuck. That's going to give me nightmares now, thank you."

"Anytime!" Kairi replied cheerfully.

Axel just rolled his eyes.

After that, Namine pulled out the other sketches she had drawn last night, just to see if they saw any other shapes or potential people that she missed. Neither of them did— although Namine did notice Axel and Kairi having a non-verbal conversation behind her back. She only saw the end of it, though, when Kairi looked from the unfinished sketch of Demyx to Namine, and then back to Axel. Whatever Axel didn't say made her look surprised.

Of course, they didn't tell her anything when she asked. Namine didn't mind, though; she held the firm belief that things would come around eventually, if they were meant for her. Her mom was the same way.

They didn't answer, either, when she asked if it had anything to do with how her sketch looked. Kairi called her a perfectionist, but Namine didn't consider that a clue by any stretch.

* * *

A/N:I'm sorry I haven't been able to respond to your reviews (it's been a crazy week), but I just want to announce that I do appreciate every one of your comments!

I apologize if Cloud and Aerith (and Tifa and Leon, for that matter), are horribly out of character. I have never written Aerith or Tifa, and only Cloud and Leon once for a oneshot theme I was doing (see my gallery, their names are in the title).

I was going to make everyone's parents OC's, but I decided that since I was already trying to fit all of the other KH characters in the fic, I may as well. Plus I'd have to come up with names etc. and since it's a weekly thing, I'm not about to take more time than I already am to come up with decent original characters. Plus, I thought it would be fun to have Stoic!Leon and Kickass!Tifa as Sora and Roxas' parents. Roxas blond hair came from an unknown relative of the family. Maybe Ven is his dead uncle, or something. Yeah.

So there it is. And don't Namine and Aerith have parallels in their character? I think so.

All right, time to watch Roxas die of embarrassment at school. From Axel's perspective! *evil laugh *

Until next week!

--Trempush


	17. Coming Out

Reviewer Shout-out: Vithian, TouchMyKeyblade, animaluvr4life, Hikarin-love, nekotsubasa, xHanako, Faye, ArianZephyr, fujin25, mel's merleawe

Thank you all! :)

A/N: Sorry for the lateness on this, guys! I have a journal on DA explaining this, but basically, I've been overloaded with stuff to do in RL, so I've had to set this aside for a week or so. Which meant that I couldn't work ahead like I usually do, meaning that most of this chapter was just written Tuesday through Thursday of this week (it's Friday now). I still had my unofficial beta (my sister) read it over, so now that she's given me the green light, here we are. I'll work on the next chapter this weekend, and hopefully I'll be able to post on time next week. Cross your fingers, guys!

Chapter title: Coming Out

* * *

Axel wasn't expecting to run into Roxas before school even started, but there he was in the bus lanes, shuffling into the building next to a considerably happier-looking Sora. He didn't even notice Axel fall into step beside him.

"Hi!" Sora said brightly, waving even though they weren't even a yard apart. Axel gave a mock salute.

"Yo."

Roxas' head snapped up at the sound of Axel's voice.

"Whoa," he said, looking startled, "When did you get there?"

"Well I wasn't timing it, or anything," Axel replied, "So I don't know how many seconds it's been."

He grinned. Roxas just looked at him for a moment; he seemed like he was thinking about something. Axel had noticed in the short time he'd actually known Roxas that he did a lot of that kind of really hard thinking while he was staring at something.

"That wasn't supposed to be a complicated statement, or anything," Axel said, after a moment of silence.

Roxas gave his head a shake.

"Sorry," he muttered.

They'd gotten to the doors that led into the building at this point, and Axel took the opportunity to hold the door open for Roxas. Sora hopped through before him.

"Thanks!" he said, giving Axel a grin. Axel rolled his eyes.

"Spaz."

"That's what Riku calls me," Sora said, frowning. "That's weird."

"Riku as in gray-haired Riku?" Axel asked.

"Yeah!" Sora exclaimed, brightening up even more at the mention of the name, "Do you know him?"

"Yeah, kinda. I didn't know you did, though."

"He's an old friend of ours," Roxas said, as they continued down the main hall into the rest of the building. His tone sounded very automatic— like he wasn't focused on what he was saying at all.

Sora sighed.

"Come on, Roxas," he said, turning on his heel and walking backwards as he talked, "It's not going to be that bad—"

"I'm just nervous, all right?" Roxas snapped. He finally made eye contact with them, and a part of Axel twisted somewhere in his chest when he saw the stressed look in Roxas' eyes. He _really_ didn't want to do this...

"Hey," Axel said, as he slowed down a bit to fall into step beside Roxas, "it's like what I said yesterday, right?"

He smiled when Roxas gave him a 'yeah, right' look.

"Think of it this way," Sora added, "Kairi and Namine and Riku still like you, right? Olette and Pence will be okay with it, and Hayner...I'm sure it'll be fine. So that's six people, not including me and Axel, that'll still be okay with it. That's good, right?"

But Roxas was shaking his head.

"This isn't just about telling people—"

"I know," Axel said. This was really bringing back some memories for him, he could say that much...

Roxas looked up at him again.

"What does that mean?"

Axel grinned, and (very casually) snuck his arm around Roxas' shoulders.

"Well, I could tell you about everything this whole coming out business entails, but it looks like you already agonized over it last night instead of sleeping."

Sora laughed loudly at that— and then ran into someone.

"Oops, sorry—!"

"Seriously, though," Axel continued, "you look like you slept for five minutes—"

"I know." Roxas muttered, "I'm just—"

"Did you eat this morning?"

"Axel!"

"I'm just asking—"

"Stop it!"

"Stop what?"

Roxas grabbed Axel's hand and yanked it off his shoulder.

"Just let me do this, all right?"

"So you _didn't _eat breakfast, then."

"No, he didn't actually," Sora said over his shoulder; he was walking properly again, a little ways in front of them.

Roxas just answered that one with a glare.

Inwardly, Axel was sympathizing completely; he remembered when he was in the same position, afraid of what other people he didn't know would think. He hadn't gotten much sleep either, before he had started to tell people.

"I'm going to meet up with Kairi and Namine," Sora announced, "See you in homeroom."

"Right," Roxas responded. Sora nodded to Axel.

"See you later."

Axel gave a little wave, and watched as Sora ran off towards the entrance hall at the front of the school.

"We do that every morning," Roxas said, "meet up in the front."

"Oh."

Without really saying anything about it, the two of them slowed to a stop at the end of the hallway they were in. The foot traffic had thinned out by this point, and they were relatively isolated.

"So when are you going to tell them?" Axel asked.

"Lunch," Roxas replied tonelessly.

"Mind if I tag along?"

Roxas didn't answer right away; he just kind of scowled at the floor.

"...is that a no?" Axel prodded, after a moment, "I could just meet up with you later—"

"That's fine," Roxas interrupted, still staring at the floor.

"Fine that I'm there, or not?"

It was only when Roxas looked up again that Axel noticed the slight blush that was on his face.

"I— I don't mind, if...you're there, or not."

Axel felt a wave of stupid happy giddiness wash over him.

"So you _do_ want me there for moral support!" he said, more loudly than he should have, "I'm flattered!"

Roxas blush deepened.

"Just don't say anything, ok?"

Axel laughed, surprised at how strangely elated this was making him. Was he really that much of a sap?

"Well I can _try,_ but I can't make any promises—"

"Axel!" Roxas snapped. He was already developing a specific way he said it...

"Hey, I'm just saying..."

Axel then did something very strange; he reached out, and ruffled Roxas' hair.

"Come on! Cheer up!"

Roxas just let him do it, staring at him with a very convincing 'what the hell'-face. That just made Axel laugh again. He would have said something else, but the bell for homeroom rang and seemed to wake Roxas out of his trance. His hand went up to his hair in an attempt to straighten it out, and he hurried off towards what Axel assumed was his classroom.

Axel just watched as he went. He wasn't sure why, but...he felt like he was watching a disaster in the making. Maybe he was just worrying, though. Roxas was getting to him, probably...

* * *

Axel was looking forward to lunch by the time his second class started; he'd already had to restrain himself at least three times from telling people who he'd written the song for in his homeroom, and there were a couple girls in his spanish class Axel had to change the subject with a total of seven times before they finally gave up. Demyx let it slip that it was a guy in lit, but that wasn't a surprise to anyone except for the new transfer student that had come in last week. She seemed kind of disappointed, actually. Axel and Demyx laughed about it on the way to the cafeteria, splitting ways when they got there.

"Don't flip out, if they don't like it," Demyx said, before making his way to where they usually sat.

Axel didn't say anything to that. Mostly because, again, he couldn't make any promises.

He looked around for a moment, only realizing now, while standing in the middle of the normal lunchtime chaos, that he didn't actually know where Roxas and his friends sat for lunch; he'd only actually eaten with Roxas outside. Vaguely, Axel had the thought that he should have clarified all this while they were talking before school. Thinking ahead was never Axel's strong point, though, and he was always finding himself in awkward situations like this because of it—

"Hey."

Axel turned towards the voice, instantly recognizing it.

"Well that's convenient," he said, "I try to find you, and you pop out of nowhere!"

"You're standing in front of the doors," Roxas said, "It would be kind of hard not to run into you."

Axel just waved his hand.

"Details."

Roxas shook his head.

"We usually sit over here," he said, "If you still want to—"

"If I was going to abandon you, I would have done it already," Axel said. He barely saw a smile, before Roxas started walking ahead.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Axel just followed Roxas through the crowd of students heading over to the lunch line. They ended up going to the far corner of the lunch room, near the doors that led to the senior area. Three people were already sitting at the end of the table, where Roxas was headed. Axel only recognized one of them— and he didn't look very happy when he saw Axel, either.

"What are you doing here?" Hayner asked, frowning up at Axel.

"Oh, don't mind me," Axel said, taking the space next to where Roxas sat down, "I'm just...tagging along."

_Wow, these guys looked like nerds_, Axel thought, as he glanced at the other two. There was a girl with brown hair that was short and long at the same time— kind of like Demyx's, except it looked girly instead of wild. The other was a guy, who was a bit on the pudgy side. He looked like a happy guy, though; he smiled at Axel, even though he didn't know why he was suddenly at their table and sitting with them.

"Hey," he said, "I'm Pence."

"I'm Olette," the girl said, "And this is Hayner."

"I'm Ax—"

"We know who you are," Hayner snapped.

"Hayner!" Olette said, smacking him on the shoulder.

"Ow!"  
"Hey, guys?" Roxas asked, his voice sounding as nervous as Axel had ever heard it. All three of them turned to him, wearing identical worried looks.

"What is it?" Olette asked, "What's going on?"

"I...have something to tell you."

Pence was the first one to turn to Axel. He frowned a little, and then looked back at Roxas.

"Does this mean you're finally admitting it?" he asked.

"Admitting what?" Roxas asked.

"Well," Pence said, glancing at Axel again., "that you're gay."

Olette gasped.

"Really? I was_ right_!"

Hayner's eyes bugged out at Pence's words. He didn't say anything; he looked like he was working on turning a nice shade of green...

"Is that why he's here?" Pence asked.

"I—um..." Roxas fumbled, turning redder than a tomato. He didn't look like he'd been expecting this at all...

"Yeah, that's why I'm here," Axel said. He put his hands up, "Surprise!"

Pence seemed a little confused, at that. Axel grinned again; this was going to be fun...

"So—you're..." Olette said, pointing at Roxas, then Axel. Axel looked at Roxas out of the corner of his eye.

"Can I start talking now?"

Before Roxas could answer, though, Hayner broke out of his shocked state, and blurted out,

"I thought I knew you, man!"

"Hayner!" Olette snapped, "Don't say that! It's not like it wasn't obvious anyway—"

"It was?" Roxas asked, "I thought—"

"Hey," Pence said, "being neutral every time the subject of dating comes up is a _big_ sign."

Roxas frowned.

"...oh."

If Axel hadn't been so pissed at Hayner's statement, he would have thought that was funny. As it was, he was about ready to give the idiot what was coming to him.

"Pence!" Hayner whined, "Why didn't you _say_ something if you knew? I was completely unprepared for that!"

"Hayner, stop it!" Olette said, "It's not like Roxas came up behind you and yelled 'boo'! This is serious!"  
"Look," Roxs said, holding up his hands, "I really don't want it to be that serious, guys—"

"He may as well have!" Hayner returned, "It's just as scary!"  
Axel's hand was already balled into a fist.

"Thanks, Hayner," Roxas was saying, "You're really helping me here. Really."

"You know Hayner," Pence said, "He'll be over it in a few days."

"A few _weeks _more like," Hayner muttered.  
"Fine. Weeks." Pence corrected Roxas sighed.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he said. Axel noticed that there was a hint of annoyance in his voice, "He'll spaz out, get over it, and then tell us how fine with it he was in the beginning."

Pence started laughing. Hayner scowled in his direction.

"That's not supposed to be funny!"

"Oh, so I'm right?" Roxas asked lightly.  
"No!"

Pence laughed harder.

"Nice one," he said, looking at Roxas. He glanced at Axel for a moment, then looked back at Hayner, a smirk on his face. So he really did enjoy making Hayner suffer.

Cool.

"I guess you'll have to get used to me being open about this, Hayner," Roxas said casually, "You know, now that I have a _boyfriend_ and all..."

Axel froze, in the act of pulling his can of soda out of his bag. Did he just hear what he thought he heard? Was Roxas actually...talking about it? Flaunting it?

_That_ was interesting.

Hayner made some noise of disapproval, but it was muffled by the lunch in his mouth. He swallowed.

"Man, of all the people you had to pick, it had to be _this _loser?"

"Hayner!" Olette snapped, before Axel had a chance to react, "He's sitting right here!"  
"He's still a loser!"

A silence fell over the table, as everyone waited for Axel to respond. Quickly, Axel assessed the situation in his mind, and just how he could deal with this. He decided to play along with Roxas.

"I didn't know you felt thatway about me, Hayner," he said, keeping his tone as friendly as possible. He smiled.

"I'm _so_ flattered."

Hayner just stared at him. Roxas made a strange noise, and covered his mouth.

"Tell you what," Axel continued, "I was thinking we could turn over a new leaf. Leave the past behind."

"You mean last _week_?"

"Yeah," Axel said, grinning as he opened his soda, "And who knows what next week will bring?"

Roxas let out a strangled laugh next to him. Pence shook his head.

"You're crazy!" Hayner exclaimed.

"Of course!" Axel said brightly, "otherwise you would have been unconscious by now!"

Roxas couldn't hold it in anymore; he started laughing out loud.

Olette sighed.

"Well," she said, "this is going to be interesting, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Pence said, nodding, "I think that's a _very_ good word to use."

"Ass," Axel shot, aiming a glare at Hayner.

"How the hell did you two end up together, anyway?" Hayner shot back.

"_Well_," Axel said, "if you want all the details, I'd be happy to share with you—"  
"Eew, no!"

"Wow, Hayner," Pence said, "you walked right into that one."

"Pence!"

Roxas was still laughing.

"How _did_ you end up together?" Olette asked politely. She looked like she was trying really hard to keep things from falling apart completely.

"I don't know if I should say anything," Axel said, "Homophobe Hayner over here might explode."

"_What_ did you just call me?!"

"You heard me," Axel snapped, "Homophobe."

"Guys—" Olette started, but Hayner was completely bent out of shape. He slammed his hands on the table and stood.

"Fine!" he snapped, "I'll just leave, then!"

"Oh, damn," Axel shot back, "I was just getting used to you."

Hayner just glared at him one more time, before walking off. They all watched, as he stormed out the back door and into the senior area.

"He left his lunch," Pence said, breaking the silence that had settled over them.

Olette glanced at the sandwich half that was left on the table, and got up.

"I'm...going to go talk to him," she said.

"Now?" Roxas asked; he'd managed to gather himself together again, at some point. "Why not let him cool off first?"

Olette looked at the back door, a worried expression on her face.

"You don't think he's going to skip class, or something?"

"Do you _want_ him sitting next to you in AP Bio when he's that pissed?" Pence asked.

"I vote for no," Roxas said.

"No, but he'll regret it."

"So?" Roxas asked.

Olette picked up Hayner's sandwich.

"I'm just going to talk to him," she said. She grabbed her fancy lunchbox and walked in the direction Hayner had gone.

In the following silence, Axel took the opportunity to voice a question that had been on his mind for a long time.

"_Why_ do you put up with this guy?"

Pence shrugged.

"'cause he's all talk," he said, "And we've all been friends since about fifth grade; we know how he operates.".

"So he flips out like this over everything?"

"He's going to hate me for telling you this," Pence said, "but...he doesn't like change. He gets really freaked out by it. So instead of getting all moody and cranky like Roxas, he gets angry about it."

Roxas just rolled his eyes at that. Axel made a mental note to make fun of him later for that.

"Then he gets used to it," Pence continued, "and gets over it. And then he feels guilty about it, so he tries to pretend it didn't happen."

Axel frowned.

"What a nut job."

"Yeah," Pence said, "he's a weird one. So," he added, looking from Axel to Roxas, then back again, "you guys are a thing now?"

"Yeah," Roxas said casually.

"Don't sound so excited," Axel replied, "It's not like I wrote a song for you, or anything."

"You what?" Pence asked.

"Oops!" Axel said, in a completely unconvincing tone, "Did I say that out loud?"

Roxas started to blush again, much to Axel's amusement.

"You wrote a song for Roxas?" Pence pressed, turning to Axel.

"I did," Axel said, grinning, "it was pretty kickass, too—"

"ANYway," Roxas said loudly, "the point is we're dating. That's all anyone needs to know."

"You're no fun, you know that? I'm trying to brag here!"

"Why?" Roxas asked, looking up at Axel. Axel scoffed.  
"Why not?"

"You know," Pence said, "I totally saw this coming."

Roxas' annoyed expression quickly switched to extremely confused.

"...huh?"

"You two."  
"Dude!" Axel exclaimed, "Really?"

"It was obvious when you started eating lunch with him," Pence said. "Olette caught on before me, but we both thought of it on our own."

"R—really?" Roxas stuttered, starting to turn red again.

"Yeah," Pence said, with a nod, "You're kind of easy to read."

"...oh."

"You really didn't have anything to worry about, by the way," he added, "just in case you were worrying about us."

When Roxas didn't say anything to that, Pence just got up from the table, wearing a knowing smile.

"I'm going to see what they're doing," he said, "lunch is almost over anyway. See you guys later."

"Yeah, see ya," Axel said absently, waving back. Roxas still didn't say anything. When Axel looked, he as just staring into space.

He put his hand on Roxas' shoulder.

"You all right?"

Roxas looked up at him, suddenly seeming a lot more tired than he had before.

"I didn't have to worry," he repeated, as though the concept were new to him.

Axel just smiled.

"Nope," he said. He suddenly remembered how afraid he was to tell Reno at first—but then, after he'd spit it out, his older brother had reacted like Pence and Olette;

"_I kinda figured,"_ he'd said. And that had been the end of that.

Roxas yawned.

"Man, I'm going to fall asleep in AP Bio," he said. He gave his head a shake.

"Did you get any sleep last night?"

Roxas shook his head.

"Unless you count the hour nap I had yesterday."

Axel raised his eyebrows.

"Damn."

"Yeah," Roxas said, with a weak smile— which quickly gave way to another yawn.

Axel knew the lunch bell was going to ring soon. He was really, really close to trying to convince Roxas to skip class, but he resisted. He knew Roxas was taking hard stuff, and the last thing he wanted to do was mess it up by being a bad influence.

So he did the next best thing.

"Hey, Roxas," he said with a smirk.

"What?"

"Think fast."

And before Roxas could even blink Axel put his hand on Roxas' shoulder, leaned in, and kissed him— just as the bell rang for lunch to be over. Roxas stiffened, making a noise of surprise and perhaps protest; Axel didn't know. He was too busy reeling from the thrill that rushed through him as they sat there, in the middle of the chaos of everyone going to classes, being completely obvious. No one said anything to or about their display of affection, too caught up in the motions of daily routine to either notice or care. Axel leaned in slightly, as thou he was going to fall away if he didn't make the conscious effort to stay there...

The noise started to subside, as people filed out. Roxas pulled away gently, barely moving after they were apart. Axel opened his eyes.

He decided he really liked being this close; Roxas' eyes were that kind of blue that he could stare at for ages.

"We...should go to class," Roxas said quietly.

Axel smiled.

"Nerd."

"Where else would I go?" Roxas asked.

"Plenty of places," Axel said, "anywhere within walking distance."

Inwardly, Axel kicked himself for that; what happened to not saying anything about skipping?

"I'm in AP," Roxas was saying, "If I don't go, I'll miss something."

"You sound like you're conflicted."

Roxas picked up his empty lunch bag, and got up.

"Come on," Roxas said, smacking Axel's shoulder with the back of his hand as he went by, "let's go!"

"Ow! All right, all right, wait up...."

* * *

Until Wednesday!

--Trempush


	18. First Impressions

Reviewer shout-out:Hikarin-love, touchmykeyblade, vithian, BlackCatHikari, xHanako, animeluvr4life, nekotsubasa, ArianZephyr, dawnstep, warror, Mel's Merleawe (sorry if I forgot anyone! D:)

A/N: I LIIIIVE! And since it's been a while, I have a little review at the very bottom so that you don't have to go back and re-read seventeen chapters just to catch up. :)

On another note, this chapter is a landmark; as of now, all the perspectives (Axel, Roxas, and Namine) have told this story in exactly six chapters each. Pretty neat, huh?

I think so :D

Chapter title: First Impressions

* * *

"I'm getting boring, right?"

"No, Axel, you're not getting boring," Namine said, "You're getting self-conscious."

"Oh. Right."

Namine smiled; it was certainly interesting, seeing the changes in her two friends in the past few weeks— the first few weeks— they had been together. Axel was permanently absent from their lunch table (much to Larxene's annoyance), and from what Namine was seeing of him, Roxas seemed to be more pleasant.

"I'm just not used to wanting to talk about one person for so long," Axel said, "it's weird."  
"You don't have to, you know," Namine said, with a laugh, "If you really think it's bad."

"But I want to. That's the weird part."  
Namine heard Axel sigh through her cellphone's low-quality speaker.

"I'm confusing myself."  
"It seems like it," Namine said, smiling again.  
They lapsed into silence. Namine didn't know how long it lasted— mainly because she was too busy trying to figure out which blue she needed next...  
She had started to hear Axel reiterate things about Roxas that were more personal now— like that time he had run into a street lamp while skating blindfolded because Sora dared him into it. She hadn't witnessed that one, but she had seen the welt on Roxas' head the next day, back when they were all thirteen or so.

Axel would always be embarrassed when he realized that Namine knew most of what he was saying already. Namine would insist that it was fine, and that she really didn't mind hearing it all over again. For one thing, Axel gave them a nice story quality that Namine's own memory didn't have— like he was describing something he read in a book. Also, Roxas told Axel aspects of their childhood that Namine hadn't noticed, or that she didn't know because Roxas had never told her what he had been thinking when something had happened.

"Oh, I didn't tell you about Jack calling me! Damn, that's the whole reason I called, too!"  
Namine blinked; she had been staring rather hard at a problem spot on her drawing.

"Jack from Jack's Tavern?" she asked.

"Yeah," Axel said, "he wants to talk to all of us about something. Like a meeting, or something."  
Namine frowned.

"That's strange," she said, "Did he say what about?"

"No," Axel said, "That was the weird part. He said he needed to talk to all of us in person."

"I didn't know he did that," Namine said.

"I didn't either," Axel said, "Don't know what it means... you think he's going to tell us to leave, or something? We didn't leave anything backstage this time, did we?"  
"No," Namine said, "But Jack himself wouldn't want to tell us that in person."

"Yeah, I guess not," Axel said, "That's the first thing _I _thought of..."  
"When, did he say?"

"This weekend," Axel said, "Saturday. One o'clock."

"At the Tavern?"

"Yeah."

"I can come," Namine said, "I'm not doing anything this weekend."  
"So that makes two of us," Axel said, "I'm gonna call Demyx."  
"Ok. I'll see you tomorrow, then," Namine said.  
"Yeah, see you."

_click._

Without another thought towards this strange turn of events, Namine went back to her drawing. Mr. Marly wasn't giving her a break from their regular curriculum, so she had to work on her portfolio pieces in her spare time. She was mostly working on her drawing of Demyx at the moment.

There was more energy to this one than the previous two, she thought. She certainly was putting more detail into it, and in a sense she felt that it was fitting of Demyx's character; simple at first glance, but there was a lot of effort involved underneath to reach that clear, comprehensible exterior. During her time working on it (it was almost done now), she had come to the conclusion that there were many reasons why Demyx could be likened to water.

For instance, he had a habit of going unnoticed— even shirking recognition that was rightfully his. He stayed in the background, and yet he was a part of everything. When scrutinized in small doses, he was transparent. When seen as a whole, he was impenetrable; no one knew what lurked underneath the still surface. Many people only saw his childish antics and dismissed him as an idiot. Namine had found herself doing it; it was too easy to do. Just like it was easy to dismiss water as boring, even though one used and it all the time in many different ways.

During their next practice that Friday, Namine decided that she needed to do one more thing before she considered her drawing complete. She didn't pay attention to the rest of the band figuring out the details of going over to the Tavern tomorrow (Zexion and Larxene couldn't make it since they were working), and it was only because Axel waved a hand in front of her face that she realized that she had agreed to meet up and ride over with Axel and Demyx at all. Things only became clear again when she started putting her idea into motion.

"Demyx," she said, when she was finished putting her things away.

Demyx looked up from putting his guitar in its case, and smiled at Namine.

"Yeah?"

"I want to show you something. Did you have time now?"

For a moment, Demyx seemed startled. Namine thought of telling him what she wanted to show him, but she also wanted it to be a surprise. That was the whole point, after all; first impressions were invaluable to her.

"Um— yeah, definitely," he said, as his smile grew wider.

"Are you showing him what you showed me a couple weeks ago?" Axel asked from the other side of the garage.

"Yeah," Namine said, "It's done, now."

"Is it another drawing?" Demyx asked.

Namine nodded.

"I wanted you to see it."

"That's right Demyx," Axel said, grinning, "She wants to see your _personal_ reaction."

Demyx gave Axel a warning look.

"If I say any more about it, I'll give it away," Namine said. She didn't know what Axel was annoying Demyx about, but Demyx didn't look like he was appreciating it very much. She didn't ask; there were a million things they could reference that no one else knew about, and explaining it to Namine would probably take more than a few minutes. So she let it be.

"Uh-huh," Axel said, "It's a _surprise_!"

Demyx's look turned into a glare.

"Axel, could you please stop—?"

"What?" Axel asked innocently, "I'm just joking ar—"

"You know darn well you're not 'just joking around—"

"Hey," Zexion said from behind the drum set, "I don't know what's going on, but can you two shut up? I'm trying to hear my sister."

They all looked over to see that Zexion was indeed on his cellphone.

"What were you saying, Xion?" he asked.

Meanwhile, Demyx was making motions of some kind at Axel just outside of Namine's line of vision. When she turned to look, he stopped and dropped his hands, forcing a grin onto his face.

"Should I ask what that was?" she asked.

Demyx shook his head.

"Not in the next three to five years, anyway," he said. Namine noticed he was starting to blush a little. She just nodded; this was obviously a sensitive spot for Demyx, whatever it was.

"Remind me to ask you then," she said, "In five years."

Demyx laughed nervously. Axel just rolled his eyes.

"See you guys later," Zexion announced, as he shouldered his backpack.

"'bye!" Demyx said, a little too cheerily. Namine waved.

"See you later," she said.

"Tell Xion Axel says hi!" Axel said. Zexion nodded.

"Already did. She says to quit saying hi to people you haven't met, you pedo."

"_What?_" Axel exclaimed indignantly.

Demyx started laughing. Over the din of his laughs and Axel's splutters of indignation, Namine asked quietly,

"She didn't say that, did she?" She had met Xion; she was a very quiet girl.

"Not the pedo part," Zexion admitted, keeping his voice low enough for only Namine to hear.  
"I won't tell," Namine said.

Zexion smiled a rare smile, and waved at Demyx and Axel.

"'later guys," he said. He walked out.

"I'm _not_ a pedo!" Axel shouted after him.

"Tell it to your boyfriend!" they heard Zexion shout over his shoulder.

That just made Demyx have to sit back down, he was laughing so hard.

* * *

After Axel had shooed them out of the garage and Namine had called Kairi to tell her why she didn't need to get picked up from practice, they got into Demyx's old van and made their slow, clunky way to Namine's house.

"So who's this next picture of?" Demyx asked, once they had gotten onto the main road outside of Axel's neighborhood. He seemed more like himself again, Namine noticed.

"I can't say now," Namine said, "You'll have to see it when you get there."

"One of those first impression things?"

Namine smiled.

"Yeah," she said. Demyx laughed.

"You know, most people think first impressions aren't anything."

"It's the most uninhibited impression there is," Namine countered, "you don't have time to think about something when you first see it— you just react."

"So it's a way to see what someone _really_ thinks of something?"

"Exactly."  
Demyx nodded.

"Cool."

Namine nodded.

"I think so."

The silence that settled over them after that was comfortable, Namine decided. Like a song she had heard, about listening with your senses instead of your ears. She couldn't quite remember what song it was, but that wasn't the part that mattered anyway.

* * *

"Hello, Demyx!" Mom said, when Namine had opened the door with her spare key, "I haven't seen you in a while!"  
"Hi, Mrs. Strife."  
"I came to show him what I just finished," Namine said.  
"Ah," Mom said, smiling, "You'll like it, I'm sure."

"Considering how they usually are, yeah," Demyx said, "I'm pretty sure I will."  
"Come on" Namine said, "It's upstairs."

"If you need anything, just say so," Mom said after them. Namine held her hand up when Demyx reached the top of the stairs, causing him to run into it.

"Oh, sorry," he said, jumping a little, "What is it?"  
"You'll see it when I open the door," she said.  
"Oh, right," Demyx said, "That first impression thing."

Namine noticed that he seemed a bit more nervous now than he had a few minutes before. She took her hand down.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"Yeah," Demyx said, nodding vigorously, "I'm just, ahm...never mind."

"Okay," Namine said. She wanted to know what was making Demyx act so strange, but if he didn't want to say, there was no reason to pry.

She pulled the door open.

"Look," she said.

Demyx walked past her into the room and halted abruptly, two steps from the doorway. For a long, long moment he didn't say anything; just stared at the drawing of himself that Namine had put on her easel in the center of her room.

Demyx in the drawing was holding a blue instrument that was similar to a guitar, but wasn't quite. Namine hadn't wanted to draw something ordinary, so she had gotten inventive and it ended up looking more like a sitar than a guitar, with a large rounded base and light blue designs. The neck and head were long and dark, showing off the light blue strings it was strung with as they glittered in the sunlight, vibrating slightly from just having been strummed.

He was standing left of center, watching a large powerful wave out of the corner of his eye as it crashed past behind him and off towards the left of the portrait. His right arm was reaching in the direction the wave was heading, as though he were commanding the water to go in that direction. Droplets and spray were everywhere. He was wearing the same cloak and gloves and shoes Namine had used to clothe all of the subjects in her portraits so far. Demyx's black shoes were boots, similar to Axel's but thicker, with a tougher-looking sole. His black cloak was covered in beaded droplets of water and was following the force of the wave, revealing black jeans underneath. His expression was focused but he was smiling, giving him a look of enthusiasm.

Namine came to stand beside the acutal Demyx, and glanced at his profile to see if she had gotten it right. She had used a couple pictures she still had on her camera from the band's summer beach trip as a reference, but they hadn't been too useful...

"_Wow_," Demyx breathed.

Namine smiled.

"You like it, then?" she asked.

"I don't think like is a strong enough word," Demyx said with a laugh, "_this_ is..." he trailed off. He looked like he felt out of place, and awkward. Like he felt like he wasn't supposed to be here, now.

"You don't have to say anything, if you don't want to," she said. He looked like he was struggling anyway...

"This is what I thought of, when you saw me think of an idea," she said with a smile.

"R—really?"

"Yeah."

"_Wow_," Demyx said again. He was blushing a little, now. "I—I didn't think..."

"What?" Namine asked, after he didn't finish. He shrugged.

"I...didn't think you'd draw me," he said quietly. He looked about as red as he did in the beach pictures now—but for entirely different reasons, some of which Namine was sure she wasn't following on.

"...that was kind of a stupid thing to say," he muttered.

"Not at all," Namine said, smiling, "I understand."

"R-really?" Demyx asked, turning even more red. Namine nodded.

"I assume I'm going to get left out of things all the time. Probably because I was, for so long."

Demyx let out a nervous laugh.

"I don't know why anyone would leave you out of anything," he said. Then, before Namine could think of a response, he jumped.

"I mean—! Well, ah..." he cleared his throat.

"Are you all right?" Namine asked, tilting her head. He seemed to be turning an unhealthy color, now, and he looked as though he were nauseous.

"I—um... I'm just feeling...a bit weird..."  
"Maybe you should go home, then," Namine said, "But if you feel like you're going to throw up, I can make some ginger tea."

"I think I'd just better go home," Demyx said, holding his stomach. He finally looked Namine in the eye for the first time since they had walked in. He seemed moved, somehow, beyond his comfort zone. The even stranger thing was that Namine was sure he wasn't like this when he walked in...

She wondered what had happened, in between when they had come here and now.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

Glumly, Demyx nodded.

"Yeah," he said shakily, "Sorry."

"It's not a problem," Namine said, "If you feel sick, you should rest."

With that, they headed back downstairs, and Namine walked with Demyx to his van. Before he opened the door to the dirver's side he started to apologize again, but Namine cut him off by telling hime he should leave before he threw up.

"R—right," he said, and obediently opened the door.

"I hope you feel better," she said.

"I hope so too," Demyx said. He seemed absolutely miserable.

Before he shut the door, he leaned out, and said,  
"Thank you. For the picture, I mean."

When Namine met his eyes to thank him, she saw something different. Behind the awkwardness and nausea, there was another feeling in Demyx's eyes, fighting to come forward. She didn't know what it was, but she knew it wasn't there before.

She had moved something in him. Something had changed inside of him when he had seen himself in her portrait. She was sure of it, now.

"You're welcome," she said, smiling. "I'll show it to Mr. Marly tomorrow."

Demyx nodded.

"I hope he likes it too," he said, smiling a faint smile.

Then he closed the van door, buckled himself in, and was off. Namine stayed standing at the front of her house, waving and wondering...

* * *

"What did you feel, when you saw your picture?" Namine asked.

"Huh?" Roxas asked blankly.

Three hours after Demyx had left found Namine wanting a second opinion on the events of that afternoon. So she had called the first person she had thought of, rationalizing that Roxas was probably working on homework at the moment, and would understand her as much as anyone. She had been right on the homework part...

"What did I feel?" Roxas clarified.

"Yes."

There was a pause. Namine could just see Roxas leaning back in his desk chair, thinking.

"Well, I thought it looked really realistic," he said.

"Anything else?"

"Not that I remember, why?"

"I drew one of Demyx," Namine said, "He came over after practice to see it, and it made him...act differently."

"Differently?" Roxas repeated, "What did he do, run away?"

Despite herself, Namine laughed.

"No," she said, "it wasn't like that."

"Was he surprised, then?"

Namine turned in her desk chair and glanced at the drawing, which was still on her easel.

"More like...he didn't know what to say. And it made him self-conscious."

"Isn't he kind of shy like that anyway?" Roxas asked.

"This time it was different."

"Oh."

Namine heard Roxas shifting again; he'd gotten up.

"You know, I think Axel mentioned something about him a couple days ago," he said, "I can't remember what it was now, though..."

"That's all right," Namine said, "if it's something important, I'll hear about eventually. From Axel."

Roxas laughed.

"Yeah, he definitely likes to talk..."

After that the conversation turned away from Demyx, leaving Namine more confused than she had been before. By the time she hung up with Roxas she was staring hard at the Demyx in her drawing, wondering if she could even begin to piece together the puzzle before herself now.

* * *

A/N: So, forty hours a week= dead Trempush. That's where I've been all this time; I graduated, started working, and... yeah. I made an UTAU voicebank on a whim about a month ago, on a three-day weekend I had (and her name is Trem XD). Then I got sick and made her sing a few things, 'cause I was like 'COOL! MY VOICE IS ON THE INTERNETZ!'.

Then I got better and went back to work, and (superfastflashforwardgo!) here I am. Tired on a Wednesday evening, wondering where my summer went. I've got less than a month before school starts up again. Then I'll be in graduate school. Otherwise known as the kingdom of Nerd.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Sorry again for the hiatus! I can't promise regular updates anymore (and they probably won't always be on a Wednesday, that was just a happy accident), but I'll try!

-Trempush

* * *

REVIEW

-Axel and Roxas have gotten together, and are now getting to know each other (lol). Roxas told his close friends (finally) that he was gay, although the only person that was surprised was Hayner, who was completely grossed out. Furthermore, he's surprised that Roxas picked Axel of all people to get together with ("THAT loser?"). Axel likes Hayner even less now, and looks forward to embarrassing him as much as possible.

-Namine is in the middle of drawing a picture of Demyx, which Axel and Kairi think is very awesome. Demyx does not know about this, nor does he know of the 'squid-man' comment that Axel made when he saw the picture.

-Demyx is still crushing on Namine, but has told Axel that he will never say anything because he doesn't think he's right for her. This aggravates Axel to no end.

-the band Hibiscus (that has Axel, Demyx, Zexion, Namine, and Larxene in it), just had an awesome concert, so things concerning the group are kind of uneventful at the moment.

-Sora (Roxas' twin brother) is concerned for Roxas dating Axel, because he has heard rumors about Axel being in a gang and other bad things. This has been neither verified nor denied, and Roxas has since forgotten to bring it up with Axel (because he's in happyland when hanging out with him. But he's not going to be admitting that anytime this century.)

-Reno (Axel's older brother) approves of Roxas. But he will not allow sleepovers or visits without Reno in the house to get in the way if anything interesting happened. He seriously considered planting a hidden camera in Axel's room, but Rude (his friend and coworker at his security job on the nearby air force base) convinced him out of it. Unfortunately.

-Roxas and Sora's parents are Tifa and Leon. Namine and Kairi's parents are Cloud and Aerith.

All right, those are all the important bits. Hopefully that jogged your memory enough. Now you can scroll back up :)


	19. The Future

A/N: One more to 20 chapters! I wonder how long this thing is going to turn out to be... I want to have it finished in a year's time, so that gives me about four more months to get this thing done.

I will succeed! *raises fist *

Title: The Future

* * *

"Do you think I'm a pedo?"

It was the first thing out of Axel's mouth when Roxas picked up the phone on Friday evening, after the band had left. Axel could tell that Roxas was already getting used to his eccentric ways; he didn't even ask about how Axel had come to this conclusion.

"Have you been seeing children behind my back?" he said, "Should I ask the local elementary school if they've seen a tall creepy red-haired man?"

Axel slammed the fridge door shut; he was in the kitchen now, trying to piece together some semblance of a dinner before he keeled over from hunger.

"That's not funny!" He exclaimed.

"What would be _really _funny is if you got the reputation of being a pedo by being seen with me," Roxas said.

Axel's eyes widened.

"Shit, have you been mistaken for a kid before?"

"Occasionally," Roxas admitted, "But only from the back."

"Oh, great, now I'm the local pedo!"

"Just from the back."

"That doesn't help me!"

Roxas started laughing. Axel sighed, and yanked open the fridge again to grab a soda. And look at his meager options. Maybe if he did a double-take, he'd see something edible...

"You're mean."

"Like you didn't know this?"

"Shut up."

"So who called you a pedo?"

"Zexion's younger sister, that's who!" Axel slammed the soda can he'd pulled out on the counter for emphasis.

"He has a younger sister?"

"Yeah, she's like, thirteen or something."

"Wow, Axel, you're harassing thirteen-year-old girls?"

"I'm not! If you were here right now, I'd smack you!"

"You would not."

"Fine, I would think really hard about it!"

Roxas laughed again. Axel grimaced at his dinner choices.

"Hey, Einstein."  
"Don't call me that—!"

"What do I make out of bread, string cheese, and an apple?"

"The hell?"

"It's all that there is in my fridge that doesn't look like it's going to eat me before I eat it."

"That's...depressing."  
"Oh, don't rub it in."

"Why not go to the store?"

"Because Reno's being a lazy ass and he doesn't trust me with his bank account and I'm broke."

"Oh. I guess you could make a really...odd sandwich, then...?"

"Maybe I'll just gnaw on my fingers instead."

"If you really wanted to, I guess..."

Axel noticed that when he was talking to Roxas, he just...talked. He could literally spend hours just sitting in his room and staring at the ceiling, talking about the most mundane things with Roxas— like what he was eating for dinner. He'd never had someone like that before. Demyx and Namine he could talk about random stuff with, but he'd get bored after a while. But not with Roxas.

Sometimes it scared Axel when he thought about just how much he liked being around the kid. He always shrugged it away, though; he got freaked out about weird shit like that anyway, that wasn't new. Axel made a point of not listening to himself most of the time; if he did, he'd be a neurotic mess.

After a while, Roxas had to go focus on his homework in full. Axel gave him a hard time for being a dullard on a Friday evening, but Roxas shut him up by pointing out he had a test on Monday in AP Calculus. Axel had the strong urge to say 'love you' before saying 'goodbye', but he resisted. He hadn't actually said that to Roxas yet, but Roxas hadn't said it to him either. So it was just 'goodbye' for now.

"My god, I'm a sap," he muttered, after he'd hung up. "Why am I such a girl?"

He decided to leave that question unanswered. If Reno were here, he'd make some smart comment about it, but he was still at work. So, Axel busied himself with watching nothing in particular on TV instead, after thinking about doing his homework. He was about to throw his cellphone onto the cushion next to where he was sitting when it started buzzing again. He glanced at the number; it was Demyx. He must have gotten back from Namine's house...

"Yo."  
"Hi, Axel," Demyx said dully.

Well, that didn't sound good.

"I was gonna ask if you scored, but that sounds like a 'no'."

"Oh, shut up."

"And you're grumpy," Axel said, "What'd you do, get into a fight?"  
"No, how could I get into a fight with her? She never gets mad about anything!"  
"Not according to Roxas. Apparently she has a really good punch."  
"Well, it's not as often as the rest of us."  
"That's true, I've never seen it. Anyway, so what happened?"

Demyx sighed.

"I just embarrassed myself, that's all," he said. "I went over there, and she showed me the most absolutely amazing drawing I will ever see of myself, and all I did was..."

"Stand there stuttering like an idiot?" Axel finished.  
"Yes!" Demyx exclaimed, "I could punch something right now, I'm so mad at myself—!"

"Or just confess your undying love to her and get it over with."

"Axel!" Demyx snapped, "That's not a solution!"

"Hey, it worked for me. It would stop you from beating yourself up about it, too," he said, "I'm just saying."

"I'm not telling her!"

"Yeah, you'll just let it slip at some awkward time and embarrass yourself more than if you had just said something intentionally."

"I will not! And speaking of letting something slip, what was with those comment at band practice earlier?"

"Dude, this is Namine we're talking about. I can guarantee you she didn't catch on."

"That doesn't mean you can torture me like that! And what makes you think that she wouldn't notice? She was RIGHT THERE!"

"Dude, I can guarantee you she didn't think I was talking about her."

"What if she asks other people about it and they figure it out?"

"Then you confess before she puts it together."

"AXEL!"

Axel grinned; he hadn't gotten Demyx this flustered in a long time. He forgot how fun it was.

"Come on! Is it really that hard?"  
"YES! I'm not doing it!"

"Why not write her a song?"  
Demyx just groaned in frustration. Axel tried not to laugh; he was pretty sure if he egged him on anymore, Axel would end up paying for it next time he saw Demyx. Demyx wasn't a violent person by nature (far from), but Axel knew for a fact that he was the only person ever that had annoyed him to the point of getting hit. Strangely enough, Axel was proud of that.

"I'm not doing ANYthing, okay? Please, could you just stop it—?"  
"Fine, fine, I'll stop teasing you," Axel said grudgingly. After a pause, he added, "For now."

"_Axel_!"

"Quit yelling at me, you're going to break my ears."

"Only if you quit messing with me!"

"FINE!" Axel yelled.

"Ow! What the—?"  
"See? It hurts!"  
"Ugh..."

Axel rolled over so that he was watching TV upside-down, just for the hell of it. It wasn't like was paying attention to what was on, anyway.

"So what do you think this whole thing with Jack is about?"

"I have no idea, but I'm getting a headache."

"Oh. I guess that means you're getting off the phone soon, huh?"

"Yeah, it does."

"Damn, Demyx. You sound more depressed than when you picked up."

"This just really sucks!"

Axel didn't respond. He really didn't have anything meaningful he could say that would make his friend feel better. He just needed to get through it.

"Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow."

"All right. Get sleep."

"Right."

_click._

Axel let the phone slip from his fingers and drop on the floor, and stayed upside-down until he was seeing stars in his eyes. Then he proceeded to spend the rest of the evening in front of the TV, wondering how on earth anyone actually made the time to watch most of this garbage...

He didn't realize he'd fallen asleep until he was getting poked in the stomach by the handle of Reno's eletro-mag early the next morning.

"Hey! Get up, you freeloader! Just 'cause it's Saturday doesn't mean you get to sleep past ten!" Reno said, jabbing him again.

"Okay, I'm awake!" Axel whined groggily. Reno laughed.

"Breakfast's in the kitchen," he said.

"You made it?"

"Don't sound so surprised."

Axel looked up at his brother. The circles under his eyes were a lot more noticeable than usual.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

He shrugged.

"Can't get to sleep," he said, "So I figured I'd get some food and stuff myself. That usually does the trick. Come on."

Axel pushed himself off the couch and, after pulling his cellphone out from in between the cushions and pocketing it, followed Reno to the kitchen.

There was a small table in the far corner that they almost never used to eat at. Now it had a large plate of scrambled eggs and a stack of pancakes in the middle, and places set for the both of them.

"Wow. You set up stuff."  
"I'm telling you," Reno said, sitting at one end, "insomnia makes me do weird things."

"It's not weird," Axel yawned, as he grabbed a cup out of the cupboard and got himself some of the coffee Reno apparently brewed too, "It's normal."

"I guess..."

He sat down opposite Reno, and they started to eat in silence. After the coffee started working on Axel's brain, he noticed that Reno was doing more thinking than eating. Axel wrinkled up one of his disposable napkins, and threw it at his brother. He jumped when it bounced off of his forehead.

"Agh—! What was that for?"

"You're thinking too hard," Axel said. "I can hear you from here, and I don't know what you're thinking about."

Reno just sighed.

"Geez, Axel, you scared the shit out of me..."

"What is it?" Axel pressed. "Spill."

"Work."

"You get chewed out, or something?"

"No," Reno said. He sat back.

"I got my deployment date. Since I already knew when I could enlist fully again, I put in for it."

Axel froze.

"When?"

"It's the day after you graduate."

"...oh," Axel said.

"You know what that means, right?"

Reno was looking him in the eye now. This was obviously the reason he wasn't getting sleep, and it sent a wave of guilt over Axel. Reno hardly worried about anything, but when it came to Axel he went on overdrive. It had always been like that.

"You need to get your ass into some kind of job before school gets out, or you're out a house. We own it, but I can't keep paying bills when I'm in the air and hundreds of miles away."

Axel set his fork down. What a great way to start the morning...

"I... guess I'll start working on that," he said.

"Good," Reno said. "You'd better do it, too, I'll keep asking about it. And breaking into the music business doesn't count."

"I know, I know..."

Becoming a professional musician had been Axel's dream for as long as he could remember, and they did make money with the band. It wasn't much, though, and it wasn't a regular source of income even though they were popular in Twilight Town. Even though it took up the time a job would, being the leader of Hibiscus didn't count as one.

Axel just wished it did.

"So what're you doing today?" Reno asked.

"Jack wanted everyone in the band to meet up with him at the Tavern," Axel said, "He didn't say why, though."

Reno frowned.

"That's strange."

"Yeah," Axel said, "So me and Demyx and Namine are going over to see what's up."

"Just you guys?"

"He didn't say. And I have no idea, 'cause it's never happened before. He just calls us when there's space available, or we ask for a space. Anyway, that's at one. So I've pretty much got nothing to do until then— Except look for jobs!" Axel added quickly, with a grin.

Reno rolled his eyes.

"I'm serious about that," he said.

"I know," Axel said, "It's just gonna suck, that's all."

"Yeah, it does. That's why I joined the air force."

"That and you're obsessed with things that fly."

It was Reno's turn to grin, now.

"Yeah, that too. You wouldn't like it, though. Just in case you're wondering."

"Ha ha ha," Axel said dryly, "_Not _happening."

Reno just laughed, at that.

He ended up falling asleep at the table, in the middle of Axel's blabbering on about life in general. It happened almost instantaneously; one minute, Reno was making comments and following along, and the next minute his head was against the wall and he was snoring. Axel took the opportunity to poke him in the side with the blunt end of his spoon he'd used to stir cream into his coffee with. Reno just about fell out of his chair, he jumped so badly, but he got the message and headed upstairs. After Reno was in his room, Axel cleaned up in the kitchen and put away what was left. It was about eleven by the time he was done. Two more hours...

He pulled out his phone, and dialed Demyx's number.

"Axel, what the hell?" Demyx slurred, after he'd picked up, "It's...oh."

"Demyx!" Axel said, feigning surprise, "What were _you_ doing last night?"

"Shut up, I was playing Kingdom Stars."

"That's not geeky."

"Are you calling about the thing at the Tavern?" Demyx asked, pointedly changing the subject.

"Yeah, I was going to tell you I'm walking. I'll meet you guys there."  
"Walking? Why?"

"Well, I've gotta look for a job, so I figured I'd start on that."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah," Axel said, "Reno's leaving the day after graduation instead of the end of the summer, like he thought. So I can't wait 'till later to start looking."

"But...it's almost October," Demyx said, "Summer's six months away."  
"The sooner I find one, the sooner Reno will stop worrying about what'll happen after he leaves."

"...Oh."

"Yeah, pretty much," Axel agreed, "So I figured I'd start on that...or something..."

"Why don't you just walk over here and deal with it after we meet Jack? I'll bet he just talked to you about it like, five seconds ago. At least come up with a plan."

"More like an hour, actually," Axel said.

"Same difference," Demyx said, "Besides, if you don't come with me and Namine to the Tavern I might crash the van, or something."

Axel laughed at that.

"Fine," he said, "I'll spare your van getting totaled. Wimp."

"See you when you get here," Demyx said, avoiding Axel's comment. Then he hung up, and Axel went about trying to remember where he put his copy of the house key...

Two hours and a lot of Kingdom Stars later they got into Demyx's van and drove over to pick up Namine. Axel scrambled into the back seat before she came out, just so that she'd have to sit in the passenger's seat. It was totally worth it, too, for the glare Demyx sent his way before Namine came out of the front door of her house.

They made it there without crashing into anything. Axel was contemplating making some loud comment about it, but he was distracted by someone standing at the front door of the Tavern. Demyx pulled into one of the spaces in front of the building, instead of driving around to the back like he usually did. Axel was the first one to get out, and he found that he didn't recognize the woman standing there, smiling at him— and he recognized everyone that worked at the Tavern. They were all friends of Jack's that he had come across at some point or another in his life. The place was like one big history of Jack's life, even though none of them talked about it.

This woman was new, though; she had a strange blue outfit on, and there were orange and white beads woven into the entire bottom layer of her straight brown hair. For some reason, there was a girl at school that Axel was reminded of, but he knew it wasn't her, and he couldn't remember who it was that this woman reminded him of.

"Hi!" she said, waving, "Are you guys Hibiscus?"

"Yeah," Axel said, walking over, "We're here to see Jack."

The woman smiled, and pushed open the door. Her eyes were really blue. Like everything else on her, minus the boots. They were brown, which seemed kind of random... that, and she had a long half-skirt-thing that hung off of one hip, but didn't come around to the other side. She couldn't have been from around here...

"Come on in," she said.

The Tavern looked completely different in the daytime. Axel had never noticed how old the place looked.

"Who's the girl?" Demyx whispered, as he came up behind Axel. Namine appeared on Axel's other side, staring at something on the ceiling. Axel shrugged.

"Hell if I know—"

"There you all are," came a familiar voice. They all turned to see Jack walking out from behind the bar in the corner. He raised a hand and waved them over. "Over here."

"Dude, we're allowed?" Axel asked, following.

"Sitting only," Jack said, holding up a finger, "I personally don't mind since you bring in business, but you're all minors and it would be hell to pay if anyone's mother found out. I'm a bit more careful of these things now that I'm older, see."

"How old areyou?" Namine asked, sitting next to Axel.

"One hundred and nine," Jack replied, flashing her a grin.

"You look good for your age," Namine said, smiling.

"Thank you."

"You're not _really _a hundred and nine, are you?" Demyx asked.

"I could very well be lying," Jack said. Then he nodded to a spot just above Axel's shoulder, "Are you ready, Miss Lenne?"

Axel turned to see the woman standing a ways behind him, smiling.

"Of course," she said. She looked at the three of them.

"I thought there were more to Hibiscus than this?"

"Zexion and Larxene are working," Axel explained.

"And they are...?"

"The drummer and the bassist," Demyx said.

"And what do you three do?" Lenne asked.

"I play keyboard and synthesizes," Namine said calmly.

"I'm guitar and sing backup," Demyx said.

"I'm the singer," Axel finished, with a grin.

Lenne nodded.

"Good," she said, "All the right people are here, then."

Axel's grin faltered slightly. Right people...?

"Oh, you're doing one of those numbers, are you?" Jack asked. Axel swiveled on his bar stool again, confused.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked. Jack pointed to Lenne.

"She'll tell you if you stop spinning in circles, mate."

Axel swiveled again to face her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

Lenne laughed.

"I've heard about you, Axel," she said, "I see you're just as they described."

"They?" Axel echoed.

"Me and some patrons, mate," Jack said, "We put in a good word for you especially."

"Huh?"

"I think if I tell you who I am, this would be easier," Lenne said. She held out her hand to Axel, "I'm with Spira Records. I'm a talent scout."

The words felt like they took forever to actually process in Axel's mind, and in the meantime he just stared at her in shock. Talent scout. Recommended to a talent scout. Axel. Especially. Good word. To the talent scout—

"_Oh_."

Lenne laughed again.

"And the light turns on," Jack said, "Took you a bit, there."  
"So...we're here for an interview?" Demyx asked.

"Sort of," Lenne said, "I wanted to get to know you three better, especially. I've seen you perform, and it seems like the three of you work well together. You're all friends?"

"Yeah," Demyx said, "we, um...well, Axel and I met in middle school, and we got to know Namine a few years ago."

"Axel wouldn't leave me alone, after he found out I knew how to use a synthesizer," Namine said.

"You say it like it's a bad thing," Axel said.

Namine laughed.

"I've had fun," she said, "Don't worry."

"Okay, just checking."

"Was it just her that you brought into the band, Axel, or were there more?" Lenne asked.

"Axel brought the whole band together," Demyx said, "the only thing he didn't come up with was the name. That was me."

"Who writes lyrics?" Lenne asked, "Do you switch off, or what?"  
"Axel," Namine and Demyx said simultaneously. Despite his anxiety, Axel had to laughing. Demyx was fast becoming bright red, and Namine was looking amused.

Axel calmed himself down quickly, though; this was supposed to be serious. He didn't know where this was going, but it just might be going in the direction he wanted. If he could manage to pull himself together, that is; a part of him was still convinced that he was still asleep in front of the TV, and hadn't woken up yet.

"That's quite impressive, Axel," Lenne was saying, "to have brought together a band, and then to write all the lyrics to the songs—"

"And the tunes," Demyx interjected, "He thinks it all up and we play it, pretty much. Except for Namine, she thinks up her own stuff 'cause she's awesome like that."

Lenne raised her eyebrows.

"I see," she said, nodding.

"Told you he was good," Axel heard Jack say from behind him. He felt himself blushing.

"I am?" he asked, swiveling to face Jack.

"You can forget I said that by tomorrow," Jack added. Then he pushed Axel by the shoulder so that he rotated back towards Lenne's direction.

"Oh."  
"So what are you three going to do after high school?" Lenne asked.

"I'm applying to art schools," Namine said immediately, "I'm not sure what I want to do yet, but I lean toward traditional media more than other kinds."

"Wow, very nice," Lenne said, "So you do this for fun?"

"Yes," Namine said, smiling.

"Well, Good luck on getting into your school of choice."

"Thank you."

"So that leaves you two," Lenne said, "Any plans?"

"Well, um...I'm probably going to go to college," Demyx said, "Don't know what I want to do yet, though. All I've really enjoyed a lot is play guitar, really."

"I see, I see. And you, Axel?"

Axel shrugged.

"Probably just keep doing what I'm doing now," he said, "I can't really think of anything else I'd want to do otherwise. Everything you could study at college sounds...kind of boring."

"So you're going to stay in music, then?" Lenne clarified.

"Yeah," Axel said, "That's...all I've got, really."

She smiled.

"Good," she said.

"Good?" Axel echoed.

"Yeah." she replied. Then, she looked around at the three of them. "Well," she continued brightly, "that's all I wanted to ask you guys, so the interview part's over. You can relax."

Axel let out the breath he was holding.

"Whew!"

Namine snickered softly behind her hand.

"What I want to do _now_," Lenne said, as she fought to keep a straight face herself, "is to make an offer."

Axel's relaxed muscles suddenly went taught again, and he straightened in his seat. Did that mean...? No, it couldn't, that was too much for Axel's brain to handle on one day...

"This might seem a little unfair of an offer, though, considering how much you've done as a band, but that's how the music industry works, sometimes. My job is to pick who I see as having potential. If I don't do that, it falls back on me."

"That makes sense," Namine said.  
"I can tell where this is going," Jack said.

"Axel," Lenne continued, "I want to invite you to come to a recording in our local studio. Hearing what I've heard of you from Jack and from your friends here today, I think it's safe to say that you have a very good chance of doing well in the music business. If the people at my company like what they hear, we'll see what we can do for you as a musician."

In the stunned silence that followed, Lenne reached into the only pocket on her skirt and pulled out a card.

"Here's my information," she said, "I wrote a time slot on the back, and the address to our studio is on the front. If that conflicts with something in your schedule, let me know and we'll arrange something else."

Axel saw his hand reach out and gently take the card from Lenne's hand.

"Sound good?" she asked.

Slowly, Axel nodded.

"Yeah," he said distantly, "That's..._great..._"

Lenne just smiled again.

"Good," she said, "I'll see you then. As for you two, I wish you the best of luck your future efforts. And no hard feelings, right?"

"No, not at all," Demyx said, "It's not a surprise, really."

"I agree," Namine added, "It's not at all."

"Make that three," Jack said, "But forget I said that. Thank you, Miss Lenne, for coming out here on my behalf."

"It was a pleasure," Lenne said, "I can always count on you for interesting finds, Jack."

"If you say that, you'll jinx me," Jack replied, "but thank you anyway."

"Bye, everyone!"

Axel listened, as Lenne left amidst the chorus of goodbyes from the rest of them. He was still staring at the card in his hand as though it weren't real. It shouldn't be real. It was impossible that an opportunity like this would just get handed to him like this...

By the time Demyx and Namine had finally gotten Axel off of the bar stool and shoved into the back seat of Demyx's van, Axel was feeling decidedly numb all over...

* * *

A/N: Lol, Kingdom Stars. I'm so original it's painful.

Happy (VERY belated) AkuRoku day! This is the first pairing I've been a fan of that had an actual day to themselves with such a big following. Kind of funny, really.

I would have had this out earlier, but I did a lot of writing ahead (we'll see how much of it I actually use :/). Also, I'm trying to make it my goal not to put those little lines in my chapters, because I rely on them too much. So if transitions seemed kind of strange, that's why.

On another note, I survived my first week of graduate school! I see many deadlines and cups of coffee in my near future. Oh yeah, and science. Can't forget that.

Reviewer Shout-out: Vithian, RevengeLovesCompany, Hikarin-love, Mel's Merleawe, Pinuiini. Thank you, guys!

Until next time!

-Trempush.


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